It was Thanksgiving Day 1997. My family gathered at my first cousin Mary Fein’s house, as we had for a decade.
The big event was a videotape of my brother Patrick, my aunt Sister Mary Padraic and another nun, Sister Paulinus, meeting Pope John Paul II that month during his weekly audience in Rome.
The video showed each of them walking up to the pope, kissing his ring and speaking briefly. You could see the joy in my aunt’s face. She was practically in tears.
I asked how they got chosen to go on stage to greet John Paul. They said people seated in the front row of the auditorium were so honored.
All right, then, how did you three get on the front row?
Sister Paulinus, who grew up in Vicksburg, shot back, “Are you kidding? I saved Bernie Law all the time in the 1960s!”
She was referring to Cardinal Bernard Law, who by this time had been in charge of the Catholic church in Boston for more than a decade. This very influential man, it turns out, got his start in Mississippi, serving as a priest in the state from 1961-73.
Law’s obituaries noted his good works in Mississippi. He spoke out for civil rights and voting rights when that was a dangerous thing to do. No doubt Sister Paulinus eased the fears of many Catholics in the state when Law wrote about these divisive issues.
If indeed she helped Law get through the civil rights years unscathed, then she, my aunt and my brother deserved those front-row seats in Rome that he reserved for them three decades later.
You already know the rest of the story. Law will not be remembered for anything he did in Mississippi. Instead, he will be the Boston cardinal who knew that a few priests were molesting defenseless children, but did not defrock the offenders. Instead, he often transferred them to another church in Boston, where the same pattern of abuse would start all over again.
Law resigned as cardinal in 2002, and John Paul gave him a job at the Vatican. Most likely, Law’s move overseas kept him from being indicted in Boston.
People may wonder what motivated Law and other leaders of the Boston diocese to look the other way. But I know why they did it: first to avoid admitting a problem, but most importantly because the Catholic church was running low on priests.
If Law, or any other bishop or cardinal, had removed five or 10 priests for criminal behavior, that would have created extra vacancies when there were fewer candidates for replacement.
The flip side to this is that when news of the coverup broke (the 2015 movie “Spotlight” covers this in excruciating detail), it cost the Catholic Church much of its credibility. No church can advocate for the needy when it tolerates even a very few of its ministers to act as predators.
In full disclosure, I am about as lapsed of a Catholic as there is, even though I went to Catholic schools all my life, all the way through Notre Dame. I married a Presbyterian but never converted.
Some Catholics reading this will say, oh, he’s just bitter and alienated, he doesn’t understand the faith. Well, my aunt is a nun, so I do understand.
I know there aren’t many Sisters of Mercy left, and there are a lot fewer priests in the United States than there used to be. And that is a shame.
A potential solution is obvious, but few Catholics are willing to consider it. And that is to allow priests to be married and have a family.
In my opinion, a life of solitude, which is required for a priestly vocation, is less appealing today than it was half a century ago. If a priest wishes to remain single and celibate, that’s fine. But I know the Catholic church has lost out on many fine men who, forced to choose, picked a family over a congregation.
Lots of Catholics will say that a priest’s congregation is his family. I disagree. I believe the two are very different.
Besides, just look around. I don’t see Protestant ministers suffering from the responsibilities of both a family and a congregation. How could it be any different for priests?
I don’t know whether the church will allow priests to marry in my lifetime. I do know, however, that Lawrence Giles will razz me about this at Rotary. Michael Artigues will write me a long e-mail. Mike Austin will tease me for being a rabble-rouser. I hope they and others at least think about the idea.
Cardinal Bernard Law was buried Dec. 21 in Vatican City. Pope Francis spoke at the funeral. Thirty cardinals concelebrated the Mass. They spoke of his good works, but not what happened in Boston.
Perhaps the healing could continue if a serious discussion about restocking the ranks of the priesthood begins.
