Having Moral Authority Requires Being Moral

Decades ago the noted Soviet political philosopher and humanitarian, J.V. Stalin, took a few moments off from the hard work of signing death warrants to meditate on a critical question. The Greatest Leader In Human History (to use one of his lesser encomiums) mused to a subordinate who had raised the issue of opposition from the Roman Catholic Church, "How many divisions does the pope have?"

Stalin knew the answer. None. At the same time even the bloody handed Soviet dictator well understood that the pope commanded a force far more powerful than an armored division or even an armored army. The pope exercised moral authority on the thinking of millions of people around the world--including more than a few who were not members of his congregation.

Moral authority was the pope's weapon then. It remained so as one pope followed another. That is until now.

Communities of faith such as the Catholic Church function best in the political, social, and economic lives of humans when standing apart from the instruments of government and state to act in the eternal prophetic tradition. The prophet has only one thing going for him. The one and only mechanism available to the prophet--be it an individual or a giant institution-is moral authority.

Moral authority provides the prophet, the church, with its only palpable form of legitimacy, its only claim upon the ears, eyes, and attention of an audience. The power of the prophet comes from both the fundamental accuracy of the message and the unassailable purity of the messenger. An accurate, critical message from a besmirched messenger will not be heard nor heeded.

While it is eminently suitable to take exception with aspects of the social, cultural, political, and economic messages of the Catholic Church, it is nonetheless necessary to acknowledge that the Church has put forth appeals and criticisms which rest comfortably within the prophetic tradition. The encyclical Charity in Truth is a good, recent example of this.

Charity in Truth is prophetic in tone as it is in substance. It delivered a message which deserved attention even if only that its predicates, argumentation, and conclusions could be rebutted. As was the case with many (but certainly not all) encyclicals, Charity in Truth invoked the highest human aspirations and chastised failure to live up to their challenge.

This appraisal is not undercut by the reality that the Catholic Church--or at least its Central Command, the Vatican, as well as the pope, Benedict XVI, who issued it stood as monuments to politically incorrect positions on such matters as reproductive rights, the status of homosexuals, or gender equality. While both unfashionable and arguably as wrong as a dog purring, the posture adopted by either the Church or the pope did not fatally erode the moral authority of the message or the messenger.

The same cannot be written of the Church's and the pope's response to the ever-widening revelations of priestly sexual abuse of children and adolescents. Starting in the US nearly ten years ago and spreading recently to Ireland, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, the tales of both sexual molestation and conspiracies of concealment have not only stained the hem of the pope's robes, they have splotched the entirety of the Church.

The repeated pattern of denial, willful concealment, covert payments, vows of silence have constituted a species of unilateral disarmament by the Church. The all too obvious inability or unwillingness of national hierarchies, the Vatican, and Benedict XVI to openly acknowledge the criminal conduct of priests and their superiors has resulted in the destruction of the institution's and the pope's moral authority.

The bunker mentality exhibited by the various actors in this sordid drama remind the observer of the Nixon administration at its worst. The conduct of Nixon and his minions in the wake of that famed "second rate burglary" cost the president both his perceived legitimacy and his office. While Benedict XVI cannot be impeached, he and the Church he heads can be tried and convicted in the court of public opinion.

The sentence which will be imposed and from which there is no easy appeal is the forfeiture of the right to be heard or heeded. Quite bluntly, without moral authority what claim does the prophet possess? No matter how accurate and perceptive the prophetic message might be, the blotched robe assures no one will pay attention.

Benedict XVI and the priestly politicians who surround him in Vatican City have engaged in a strikingly, shockingly short-sighted exercise in institutional protection at all costs. The irony is that the costs which these myopic defenders of the faith have imposed upon their Church both today and into endless tomorrows is and will continue to be far greater than those which would have been assessed had the kiddy-diddling priests been left to hang, twisting slowly in the wind when the first hint of scandal emerged.

Were Joe Stalin around to ask his question today, anyone and everyone could honestly answer, "None." And, that is both a pity and a tragedy considering how much the world needs honestly prophetic voices today.