Lo spirito
della
democrazia

«The Bishops?
They are fathers, not employers»

Msgr Albacete, an prominent figure in the American Church and contributor to The New York Times, talks about the crisis. Cover-ups? But how should the Shepherds have acted with those who made a mistake?ato?

di Alessandro Zaccuri
Avvenire, New York, 12.06.2002


“How is the Pope, Father?,” a policeman suddenly asked before leaving the restaurant. It often happens to Msgr Albacete that someone asks him news of the Holy Father The mass media call him a “personal friend of John Paul II” and he has learned by now not to be too surprised. Born in Puerto Rico, he is Responsible for Communion and Liberation in the United States and a contributor to prestigious newspapers and magazines, especially The New York Times, which in March published an article by him defending priestly celibacy. His words, coming at a moment when the debate about sexual abuse by priests was at a fever pitch, were received with great respect. Perhaps because Msgr Albacete began by remembering that his father had done everything possible to discourage his vocation. “As a good Hispanic, he thought that priests were all crooks. In my own small way, I tried to show him that he was wrong…” Albacete comments.


Msgr Albacete, what do you think of the crisis in these months?

In certain aspects, it is a profoundly American crisis. Respect for the law, for example: we must not forget that it is precisely law which guarantees the unity of the nation. This is a country made up of persons coming from very different cultures, who however recognize that they are all equal in the face of the same system of rules. In recent years, too, laws about the abuse of minors are being considered increasingly important by public opinion. All of this can help us to understand why the scandal has taken on such impressive proportions.


What about the presumed cover-ups by the Bishops who knew about it?

American society has a hard time reasoning in spiritual, or rather, pastoral terms. Put yourself in the place of a Bishop who hears the confession of a priest who has abused someone. What should he do? Public opinion in the United States has no doubt and demands “zero tolerance”: report the guilty party to the authorities and then “fire” him, i.e., reduce him to the lay state. But a Bishop is not an employer. And a priest is not an employee. Their relationship is, if anything, that of father and son.

However, Americans do not understand this.
This is true, on one hand because they do not grasp the concept of respect for the internal forum, and on the other because they come from a tradition in which, paradoxically, the figure of the priest has been idealized even too much. All this is reflected, among other things, in the way celibacy is viewed: not as a sign of love for Christ and His Church but as a state of perfection which should place the celibate out of reach of any contamination. This is hardly a realistic vision and one that is devoid of a true spiritual dimension.


Are you saying that this is all wrong?

No, I am saying that we have reached a point where we have to refound and reinforce our religious experience.
Besides, this is what the Pope has been urging us to do for a long time. “New evangelization” means a return to our roots, a rediscovery of the originary bond between Christ and the Church. If she loses sight of her belonging to Christ, she becomes a solely human reality, exposed to all the risks that today characterize the American crisis. And even worse: without the love for Christ, the very structure of the Church risks becoming an unbearable burden. The misunderstanding of celibacy is only one aspect of this lack of motives.