“But it’s not supposed to be so”: Dominican father Bernhard Kohl about the destructive combination of Power, Faith, and sexuality that perverted the dealing with sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.
“But it shall not be so: but whosoever will be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be First among you should be the slave of all” (Mk 10: 43 f.). This sentence of the Evangelist mark, I think that’s why is so important, because here is something virulent, that has a lot to do with an issue of the credibility of the Catholic Church to decide, or you will be lost: The relationship of Power and Faith, more specifically the relationship of Power, Faith, and sexuality.
For most Catholics, let’s be honest – this is a side issue. They decide for themselves what to do. Prevention, Cheating, divorce, premarital Sex – all this occurs in the case of Catholics, probably at a similar frequency as in the case of non-Catholics. Maybe Catholics have a weaker Conscience. For those who move as a believer within the space of the Church, where your Faith is vitally important, it may have been a violation of the moral teaching of the Catholic Church in unpleasant consequences. It is excluded from the communion of the Church, who is divorced and re-married, who confesses to his homosexuality, who lives unmarried with a Partner. Here Church the temptation to combine Power with sexuality. And they combine in a destructive way.
Offense Power and Faith intertwined with sexuality
For several years, people whose whole life is overshadowed by an abusive and perverse amalgamation of Power, Faith, and sexuality after a long Silence. So I would like to talk to any General suspicion of the word. There is no direct way from celibacy to the sexual abuse of children and wards. Such a suspicion is revealed – so much as the fault of the Individual and the system, and were seen must be wrong, and unfair, because abuse happens everywhere. Statistically, most often in the family, but also in state schools or in sport clubs. These statistics, however, may not be for the Church to approve the excuse and the apology. The inside of the Church which has become manifest in abuse forces you to draw the eye to the relationship of the Catholic Church to Power and sexuality. Because there are reasons for the abuse, there are reasons why he is covered and concealed.
First of all, it must be noted that the Christian does not Believe the body and of sexuality is hostile, as it often is held. Only the Catholic Church, sexuality, the authorities tried to organise, to control with fear like a nasty animal that belongs in the cage. It is the attempt to do something beyond nature according to each rule. Sexuality and Faith belong together, because sexuality and Religion to touch people in the Deepest of. Sexuality and Power on the other hand belong strictly separated because the Church can only be represented by credible, that Eros and love belong together, and because the step from Power to violence is so small.
Climate of the Unspoken power of blackmail
However, if Power, Faith, and sexuality connect to, must be silent, hidden, and suppressed, then a climate of Unspoken and Unspeakable, then people are vulnerable to blackmail. This is the Catholic Element of the crime. The Church really does a lot to prevent abuse, reveal it, and to help the Victims, but not consistently enough. The peculiar Catholic relationship between Power, Faith, and sexuality is not yet in sight.
“But it’s not supposed to be so…” While Jesus is towards those who are commonly regarded as powerful, completely unsentimental, he seems to hold for his Church something else to be possible. This Vision was so breathtaking that it is worth your to investigate. You would make us aware that it is our calling as Christians, this Vision of Jesus, that in a Christian Church, a different relationship to Power is possible. “For even the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to Minister, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mk 10,45). This is the key. The Vision of a Power that is not abusive.
Bernhard Kohl OP, Dr. theol., Assistant Professor, St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto. Research and publications on the topics of Vulnerability, recognition, Post -, and TRANS-humanism.