Spoils of the Kingdom: Clergy Misconduct and Religious Community

Introduction by A. W. Richard Sipe

a. w. richard sipe Introduction Rightly it can be taken for granted that communities of faith seek integrity. At the same time we have to admit that the history of religions is peppered with misconduct, malfeasance, crime, and corruption of its elite—its clergy and leaders. The beginning of the twenty-first century is no exception. In fact, the sexual abuse crisis pounding the Roman Catholic Church provides for examination a textbook for case studies of clergy misconduct. Although there is no monopoly on clergy misconduct in any one religion , the spotlight on Catholic clergy can serve all faith communities because of the extent of revealed abuse and the long history of alternating corruption and reform recorded in Roman Catholic documents (Doyle, Sipe, and Wall 2006). The depth of the investigation into clergy malfeasance now in progress has not been equaled since the Protestant Reformation. Every faith community already owes Anson Shupe a debt of gratitude for his analysis of their structure of conflict and reform in his classic book In the Name of All That’s Holy: A Theory of Clergy Malfeasance (1995). There he distinguished the power structure of churches, dividing them into three categories: hierarchical (that is, episcopal), presbyterian (that is, democratic), and congregational (that is, of more egalitarian makeup ). He analyzed how each of the three deals with clergy misconduct and what resources each has for correction and reform. Each possesses its particular advantages and limitations in its capacity for organizational response. In this volume, Shupe continues his service to religion and faith communities. xvi Introduction Here he focuses on the function and culture of faith communities. In the process of asking difficult strategic questions, he performs a biopsy on the American body religious and he diagnoses a cancer. All accurate diagnoses are gifts because understanding provides a possibility for intervention , treatment, and healing. This book is significant both theoretically and practically. Shupe poses questions that bring resources from sociology, criminology, and religion into a mutually beneficial working relationship. As he says, “For too long criminology has ignored organized religion as a major source of white-collar and corporate crime, and in complementary fashion religion has shirked from examining its own underbelly.” I can attest to the practical importance of Shupe’s work from the vantage of an expert witness and consultant in more than two hundred civil and criminal cases of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests. Shupe’s analysis is distinctly sociological. He challenges the reader to understand why and how such (criminal) behaviors are able to occur in religious organizations. Clerical elites, not only in the Catholic Church, consistently try to reduce problems to the “psychological motives of greedy, weak, or sick personalities.” But clergy malfeasance “occurs in a systematic, or structured, context and is not merely the result of a ‘few bad apples in the barrel,’ however discomforting that thought is to any religious apologists or believers.” Pregnant questions, even disquieting questions, must necessarily be posed to understand the systemic character of religious groups. But crucial questions are often resisted and rejected, even when the stakes for restoring integrity to a faith community are monumental. Why do men and women of faith and integrity rally behind leaders and clergy who prove to be unquestionably guilty of misconduct or even crime? Why does the mass of a faith community remain silent even when it has awareness and sometimes incontrovertible evidence of clergy misdeeds? Why do some communities ostracize the whistleblower? How do faith communities conspire to conceal malfeasance? Why do some faith communities fragment and others do not when the misdeeds of a religious leader come to light? These are the vital questions that Shupe boldly faces. Clergy misconduct has always centered on three issues: power, money, and sex. The Christian church’s first synodal records, from Elvira, Spain, in 309 c.e., deal extensively with clergy malfeasance (Laeuchli 1972). Power, sexuality, and control over ecclesiastical property were of great concern to the synod fathers. Begun in Elvira, the struggle to establish celibacy—le don, or “the gift”—as a centerpiece of the Roman Catholic clerical elite has continued throughout the centuries. Introduction xvii These three areas of concern—power, money, and sex—have dominated canon laws and predominated as concerns in church councils throughout the history of the Roman Catholic Church. They are still, in the twentyfirst century, the main areas of concern and clergy malfeasance. In the first...