Solidarity: Lessons from the Clergy Sex Abuse Scandal in Addressing the Crisis of Gun Violence

         
Although it has been several weeks since the mass shootings in Dayton and El Paso, the debate around gun violence and arms regulation continues and will likely be a topic politicians and policy makers return to as the 2020 elections draw nearer. I think these debates are necessary and good insofar as their intention is to foster lasting solutions toward reducing gun violence, in all its forms, in this country. I think it is accurate to describe the prevalence of violence, especially gun violence, in our culture as a crisis, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have described it as a pro-life issue. Just as an aside, the USCCB has taken a pretty clear stand on certain policy suggestions that aim at reducing access to firearms (especially assault weapons) while respecting the general principle of the 2^nd Amendment (see here). Now, do these policy suggestions require the same assent of faith as dogmatic statements, like the Church’s belief in Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist? The short answer is no, but at the same time, these policy suggestions presented by the bishops should be received with respect and seriousness since they are based in faith and reason by the Church’s teaching office.
               OK, all that aside, I promise that this post is not a discourse on Church authority and assent. Please bear with me and my tendency to go on tangents. Instead, I would like to focus on the necessity of adopting an attitude of solidarity as a society when addressing a crisis. In a previous post, I looked at the individual’s responsibility to examine his or her own resentments and give them up to God as a means of fighting the spiritual root of mass shootings (here). This post, looking at policy decisions in light of solidarity, is more directed toward communal conversion.
                It seems to me that when a nation, community, neighborhood or family is faced with an ongoing crisis, i.e. one that repeats itself, the worst thing to do is nothing, hoping the problem will just go away on its own. There is a well known quote that says insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. A recent news story described the thwarting of another mass shooting plot planned at a Marriott in California, and in that same story, the newscasters reported that at least 30 people had been detained for similar threats across the country since El Paso and Dayton. Now, thanks be to God that the police arrested the alleged shooters before anything happened, but the fact that so much mass carnage was being planned in such a short span of time shows that this crisis is not going away. If anything, it’s getting worse and worse and will continue to get worse if nothing is done.
                To address this problem on a policy level, there have been continued calls for bans on assault weapons and more stringent universal background checks, among other possible regulatory actions. The President even seemed to be in favor of the latter initially after El Paso and Dayton, but it appears he has retreated from that position in favor of speaking about mental illness. Backlash against any sort of firearm regulation often comes down to the argument that regulations unfairly punish law-abiding citizens who would not and do not commit such atrocities. If anything, the argument goes, regulations would not impede criminals and would restrict good people from having easy access to weapons.
                I sympathize with the above position and think there is some truth to it, albeit with some nuances (e.g. If I hold onto the badge of, "I would never do x," I need to check myself, because I am a fallen human being). At the same time, when there is a crisis, when innocent lives are at stake, I think it becomes increasingly necessary, in the spirit of solidarity, to sacrifice our personal wants, sense of personal reputation and “freedom” for the sake of the common good. Obviously, the effectiveness of a certain policy or regulation needs to be tested in practice over time. If a policy that looked good on paper proves ineffective at reducing gun violence, then abandon it in favor of a better one. However, if those tests cannot even get off the ground due to an attitude unwilling to make that personal sacrifice, then the project is dead in the water.
                Oddly enough, I would like to illustrate an alternative vision by looking at the Catholic Church’s experience and internal reforms after the first major wave of the clergy sex abuse scandal in 2002. There was a clear crisis, and the problem would get worse if it were not addressed head on with clear reforms and policies. The bishops published a prescriptive document for the Church in the United States called the Dallas Charter, which set forth some very clear and stringent policies for both the prevention of and reporting of sex abuse (As an aside, in light of the Theodore McCarrick scandal last summer, the charter is being revised to hold bishops to the same regulations). As a result of this charter, everyone working in the Church, either as an employee or volunteer, is required to have a background check and take mandatory abuse prevention training, which is renewed on a regular basis, among other things. I experienced this a lot as a seminarian and continue to do so as a non-seminarian since I volunteer in my home parish. The point is that even though the vast majority of people working in the Church today (bishops, priests, deacons, religious and lay people) who have subjected themselves to these background checks and ongoing abuse prevention training were not responsible for past abuse, they were and are willing to sacrifice their ”right” to be above scrutiny for the sake of those who experienced grave harm at the hands of abusers. In short, even though they were not the cause of the problem per se, they were willing to be part of the solution, and this has helped drastically reduce the rate of abuse. Last summer, the infamous Pennsylvania report came out which documented the seventy year history of about 300 Catholic clergy who engaged in abuse, sometimes serial abuse. It is sickening to hear the ways in which these clergy preyed upon young people, and righteous anger is the proper response to this report. At the same time, it should be noted that of the four hundred crimes reported in those seventy years, only two occurred after 2002, the year the Dallas Charter went into effect.
                In sum, an attitude of solidarity seems most necessary in response to a crisis, which entails a willingness to do whatever is necessary to alleviate the suffering, even if that means sacrificing personal liberties. When someone is gravely suffering from abuse, violence or some other evil, it is my problem, your problem, our problem. The good news is that if it’s our problem, we can also be true participants in the solution, with God’s help.