A Letter to the Irish Bishops and Irish Independent in Response to Pope's Letter to Irish People and Sex Abuse Scandal

Dear Cardinal Brady, Archbishop Martin and every other Catholic Bishop of Ireland:
I write to you, as a true believer and son of Donegal Catholic parents, with a heavy heart on this day of infamy for all people of good will worldwide. I have just read carefully the pope's long overdue Letter to the Irish Church. I have little doubt that at least some of you were consulted at length in its preparation. The pope's Letter is both materially misleading by omission and drastically deficient is specific actions. The misleading aspects include the attempt to recast the serious mismanagement and even in some cases gross negligence of the pope and you bishops into merely a spirtual shortcoming--- a subtle attempt to change the subject. This is a typical "mystical smokescreen" he employs that we by now have gotten used to piercing through. The deficiencies include the shocking failure to remove those Irish bishops , including Martin Drennan, Eamon Walsh, Raymond Field and Cardinal Sean Brady, who by overwhelming evidence have shown clearly they cannot any longer be relied upon to safeguard the faithful, especially defenseless children, and even though several of them had recognized their own serious pastoral shortcomings and had already tendered their resignations! The absolutely clear message from the pope in the Letter here is that if you are in the bishops' clerical club, you will never be held accountable ---- no matter how many thousands of innocent victims suffer for their entire lives for your actions or inactions. This is not just another insult to the many abused victims. It clearly means that all present and future Irish children still remain at great risk of sexual abuse,notwithstanding many paper promises and smooth speeches of the bishops . This is hardly much different than the approach of absolutest medieval kings; clearly inappropriate at the present time, don't you think. For the thousandth time, and the last time, the pope and you bishops have let your addiction to power (---"-Let us bishops once again stick together and preserve at all costs one more time our powerful and comfortable positions!"---) control your actions. How stupid does the pope and you think Catholics really are? Very, very stupid, it appears from the Letter. We will have to see about that. The pope still writes with the mindset of the Sun KIng, King Louis XIV, as if the French Revolution never really happened.-------" L'Eglise; c'est moi"! May God forgive him. -------------------------In the name of Jesus Christ and the true Gospel message inscribed in each of your hearts, as well as a believing grandfather who wants his grandchildren to be able to approach our God without risk of sexual abuse, I hereby challenge each of you, on behalf of all people of good faith and all faiths, to sign, publish and act upon by May 23, Pentecost Sunday (64 days from now) the Bishop's Call for a Council set forth below. If any Irish bishop fails to do so by Pentecost, I will, with the support I am confident of countless similarly disgusted Catholics who are also poised to join with me to clean out the temple, promptly thereafter initiate, with all media resources available, a campaign calling for a complete contribution strike in that bishop's diocese. Catholics will be asked to apply Christian love, "tough love", and to stop enabling bishops in their power addiction. Catholics in such diocese will be urged to do their primary duty to protect defenseless children and to cease and accumulate contributions until that bishop signs and acts upon the Call. Unfortunately, once Catholics stop contributing , they may (as I am sure you well know) never resume contributing; no matter what the bishop subsequently decides to do. Hence, you bishops would be well advised to give this your prompt and full attention. You bishops would also be well advised to consult with your brother bishops in the over half dozen dioceses in the United States that have gone bankrupt to get a better idea of how difficult it is to run a diocese that is in an insolvency proceeding. From this believer's viewpoint, better to start over with a new diocese than to continue with a false one. --------------------------------- I spent 16 years in Catholic schools and each of my children went to Catholic schools. I was a college classmate of the pope's long time principal assistant, Archbishop Augustine DiNoia O.P., now a senior Roman Curia official. I love my Church, but will no longer without a full struggle let this pope or even you hijack it so that you can preserve your powerful and comfortable positions. I learned at the Harvard Law School and the Harvard Business School , as well as over thirty years at the international Wall Street law firms of Sullivan & Cromwell and Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft, how the powerful can always be expected to attempt to hold on to their power tenaciously by almost any means. I also learned how to challenge that power successfully and look forward at this point to the struggle on behalf of defenseless children and the many thousands of clerical child abuse victims who once again have been disillusioned by this very inadequate Letter. In the interests of trying to address this issue with you quietly, I had earlier informed Archbishop Martin of Dublin in detail of my foregoing intentions, but in the typically royal fashion of Irish bishops, I never even received an acknowledgement. Please note that this is the Bishop's Call for a Council:>>>>>>>>>> {To be signed on or before May 23, Pentecost Sunday, by each of the 24 head Irish Bishops and published on the bishops' Website, catholicbishops.ie}: ------- I, {insert the bishop's name and diocese} do solemnly confirm, so help me God, that (1) {Concerning Effecting Church Structural Reform}: I will forthwith call for a new ecumenical council ("Council") to be held in Rome before December 31 of this year to take all necessary action (including the related revision of the Code of Canon Law) to return the Church's structure to the consensual structure that existed among the apostles and their followers and successors for the Church's first 300 years, including the direct election and removal by the laity of bishops (including the bishop of Rome) and parish pastors , and the limitation of 10 years on holding a bishop's or pastor's specific office by any person in their lifetime; (2) {Concerning Conducting a Human Sexuality Policy Review}: I will, to the best of my ability and in good faith, take all action necessary to cause the Council to review and revise, wherever it is determined to be called for and permitted by the Gospel as authentically interpreted and without deference to any inauthentic interventions of the pope or the Roman Curia, all of the Church's current policies on human sexuality and gender matters, including celibacy, birth control, homosexuality and the full participation of women in ministry, and to include in the process of making the related review and revisions, the active and open participation of lay male and female experts in a similar manner to their full participation in the so-called Birth Control Commission during the 1960's; and (3) {Concerning Future Papal Support For the Council}:----I will not support any future candidate for pope who does not first commit in a public writing to abide fully and faithfully by all of the decrees and decisions of the Council. Signed on or before May 23, 2010 by { Signature of bishop and name of diocese goes here}. --------------------------------------------------------------------- In evaluating the above Call, I respectfully ask each of you bishops to consider the following: (1) (Concerning Effecting Church Structural Reform). The Church in its first 300 years had mainly a consensual structure. Disputes were resolved mostly by dialogue. The Church flourished. By 300 A.D. over five hundred Christian communities existed, notwithstanding communication and travel difficulties and periodic persecutions. Attracted by the Church's organizational potential and other factors, the Roman emperors in the fourth century pressured Church leaders to become handcuffed to secular political power. Some papal opportunists soon saw the material and other advantages of political power; and for 1,500 years the Church has operated in a coercive hierarchical structure. Many in the hierarchy lived lavishly, often with illicit sexual relationships. Disputes were decided by force, sometimes fatally with a burning at the stake. In 1870, the pope lost his political power over the major part of Italy he had ruled for many centuries, breaking the handcuffs joining the spiritual to secular power. In a desperate stab at retaining some "mystical" power, Pius XI in 1869 created "infallibility". By 1980, the "Wizard of Oz" curtain had been opened on infallibility. Independent theologians and Brian Tierney, the U. S.'s foremost medieval historian, a layman at Cornell University, have shown that infallibility was created against the pope initially by a strange Franciscan in the High Middle Ages. Since 1870, there has been absolutely no doctrinal, theological or political reason that the Church cannot return promptly to its original consensual structure. Of course, that would require that the Church hierarchy give up some power and perhaps some comforts, which seems clearly to be the reason there has been no really meaningful structural reform in the Church during the 140 year period since the pope lost all political power in Italy. (2) Concerning Conducting a Human Sexuality Review: Current history and science and everyone's personal experience tells us how powerful and persistent the forces of human sexuality are. We have learned a great deal since Augustine laid a lot of his perceived negativity at Eve's doorstep. At Vatican II many bishops wanted to evaluate and debate human sexuality issues, including celibacy and birth control, only to be thwarted by a determined Roman Curia, led by the well-intentioned but clearly misguided Cardinal Ottaviani, with the support of similarly misguided and conflicted popes. It is time to revisit these and all related issues openly and honestly before millions of more Catholics feel compelled to leave the Church in frustration and desperation. ---------------------------------------------------------When I started to get involved in the clerical child abuse issue and determined that the bishops would never negotiate unless financial pressure was applied, I consulted an American who had been involved intensely for several decades in the struggle on behalf of defenseless victims of clerical child abuse. He had also observed the American bishops up close over many years. He described the American hierarchy to me as being not only obstinate, but also vicious and unable to tolerate any opposition. He added that he found the current class of American bishops generally to be intellectually dull, very ambitious, unaware of the meaning of Vatican II, highly clerical, anti-laity, and obsessed with their own power. So far I have seen little to indicate his description of American bishops to be far off the mark. I am hoping that this description does not fit the Irish bishops and think I will have a very good idea by Pentecost Sunday. When biblical Lot left the sinful city of Sodom he could only find four righteous people in the entire city. I am hoping that in all of Ireland I can find at least as many among the bishops as Lot found at Sodom.----------------- In conclusion, I would like to share some observations in light of my professional experience. The resistance you are currently facing from the Irish people is only going to increase significantly in the coming years. The Irish politicians will soon abandon you (ask Cardinal Brady about his politician "friends"). For his part, if Cardinal Brady does not do the honorable thing and resign, he will never again be taken seriously by his fellow bishops or most of the Irish faithful. His credibility was permanently destroyed by his decision in 1975 to put his ambitions ahead of the welfare of minors and his subsequent efforts over 35 years to hide his misguided act, even from his so-called brother bishops. He will have to live with the guilt of the many who were subsequently abused because he lacked the Christian courage to follow his conscience. Who will trust him hereafter? To be sure most of you will be spending a great deal of time and money on lawyers, who have little financial incentive to tell how to bring a real end to this. There is a way. Sign the Call for the Council and start leading again, rather than being used as papal pawns and lawyers' lunch tickets. --------------------------Like it or not, your kites are tied to the Vatican's inept public relations team. The senior spokesman thinks if he says five times every day the pope had clean hands in Munich, eventually he will be believed. Just the opposite. He also appears to believe that if he and the pope just make believe that the pope was not in constant contact with his close brother, Georg, during the 30 years Georg was choirmaster at Regensberg and numerous choirboys were seriously abused, then there will never be a need for the pope to tell the world what he knew and when he knew it about the many choir boy horror stories. This is very wishful thinking by the person the pope principally relies on to communicate with the media. As you read this, numerous reporters are combing through Munich, Regensburg and all of Bavaria to be followed soon surely by the German government investigators and countless plaintiffs' lawyers. The same pattern is occurring in many other countries. -----------------------------The pope is 82 years old and understandably looks very weary these days. In 1968 he left Tubingen to be near his brother, Georg, and his now infamous choir boys, reportedly because he couldn't at 40 years old take the stress of the student rebels. He hasn't yet seen what serious stress really is, but if he stays in Rome, he surely will. Yesterday, the same day he signed your Letter, he gave a talk that focused on Aquinas to a significant extent. Of all people, Aquinas. I studied Aquinas for years, still do and appreciate his profundity on many issues. But at a time when human sexuality in the Church is a burning issue; how could he gratuitously raise Aquinas, whose views on sex and women at times makes Augustine seem like a sexual liberal. For instance, see ST, Q 98, where Aquinas states: " We are told woman was made to help man...But she was not fitted to help man, except in generation, because another man would have proven more effective at anything else." Really!! Time to put Aquinas on ice for awhile! Of course, Aquinas was a man of the 13th century, to be sure, but is he the person the pope should be calling upon at this critical juncture? You do what you want; and I am sure you will, but if it were me, I would be extremely anxious if my fate were dependent on the public relations skills, or lack thereof, of a Curia that appears to be stuck in a medieval timewarp.-------------------------------- As I told Archbishop Martin, I expect you will follow your conscience and I will do likewise. I will pray for each of you to receive the wisdom and grace to do the right thing for Christ, the Church, the Irish people and yourselves and ask that each of you pray for my family and me. I will endeavor to send to each bishop's dedicated e-mail address as soon as practicable a copy of this e-mail. In the interest of transparency, I will also be sending a copy forthwith to every worldwide media outlet for which I am able to locate a reliable e-mail address. Finally, so that you do not think I have a bias against Irish bishops , I am also communicating with the German and American media. Moreover, I am presently researching the most effective way to challenge and invalidate the German Concordat. As you may know, this Concordat was entered into in 1933 by Hitler and Pope Pius XII when Hitler eagerly wanted at least the appearance of support from the German Catholic hierarchy. It has been a considerable source of funding for the German bishops, and indirectly the Vatican, and appears to have been a source of funds applied to fund the cover-up of clerical child abuse. I will also be moving on soon to Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Brazil, Australia, the United States, etc. The Church is truly Catholic, i.e., universal; it is everywhere. Sadly, clerical child abuse also appears to be Catholic and worldwide. And instead of dealing with it comprehensively once and for all at an ecumenical council, the pope and the bishops apparently prefer to standby and watch the Church be bled to death by endless claims and limitless legal expenses. I am happy at least that my blessed Donegal parents did not live to witness the disgraceful demise of the Church they so dearly loved.
Best regards, Jerry Slevin

Dear { Irish Independent Journalist } :
I have read on the Web the articles on clerical child abuse from the Irish Independent. I am an Irish/American in New York, with 16 years of Catholic education (nuns, Christian Brothers, and Dominicans) before entering and then graduating from Harvard Law School in 1968 (the year {my famous Irish classmate} received her LL.M degree). As a law student, I also met {another Irish schoolmate}, formerly of McCann Fitzgerald of Dublin, who was also at Harvard then, and have since had an occasion to work with him professionally.------- I practiced with international Wall Street law firms for over 30 years mainly representing major multinational corporations, although in a few instances my legal work indirectly involved matters with religious organizations, including the Catholic Church. The Church was never my client and I am not presently involved in legal matters directly or indirectly involving the Church.-------------- My blessed parents, both long deceased, were both born and raised as Catholics in Donegal, emigrated around 1930 to NY, met here, married and did what so many Irish Catholics did back then--they had nine children. Birth control was, of course, a "sin"- in this case an acceptable prohibition to me since I was the ninth child! I grew up in a 1930 "Donegal Catholic" environment--the daily rosary, excessive deference to clerics, etc., but obviously evolved in a 'Yank" culture. My parents' siblings remained in Ireland , and I found out from {my Irish law schoolmate} that as a teenager in Donegal he played rugby against my cousin. My cousin subsequently taught educational philosophy for years a U.K. university. I have four children who went to Catholic schools and now have several grandchildren. --------------I mention all of the above to give you some context for my subsequent analysis. My analysis is based mainly on my extensive legal experience, especially my having been involved in many negotiations with entrenched and powerful interests trying to preserve their power and wealth at almost any cost. My analysis is intended to cut through the harmful hierarchy's "mystical smokescreens" that are intended to distract attention from what is really fundamental and important. The blood of many Irishmen, your ancestors and mine, has been shed to build this Church. They didn't give their lives to provide a place for our children to be abused by clerics we trusted, while we are out working hard so that we can then contribute to fund their cover-up expenses and the hierarchy's generous lifestyles.---------- Most importantly, children must be fully protected. That is the bottom line. Incredibly, at present, children are still at risk of future sexual abuse by predators disguised as "people of God". Too many of us have so far failed our children miserably, even if in varying degrees (most of us, not just clerics, politicians and administrators, etc.) and we must now act with defenseless children's future welfare as our paramount, if not sole, interest. No longer can we let single men, whether well intentioned or not, write the rules and then apply them, without being accountable. In my view, there is only one way consistent with the Church's teachings to do this, but Catholics must wake up for the sake of all children and return their Church to its original apostolic and consensual structure with a clergy that is fully accountable. I am confident it can be done, if the Irish just show some of the courage they have shown throughout their history---the courage that makes me proud to call myself an Irishman, even if I lack my parents' wonderful brogues. Ireland saved the Church before, during the earlier "Dark Ages"; it is now called upon again to save it in the modern "Dark Ages".------------------I love my Church, but I have been extremely troubled by clerical abuse for some time. While it has been rampant in the US as well as Ireland, the disclosures in Ireland have finally gotten me recently to begin to get involved and to think more deeply about how best to deal with it. I was moved to contact you by the latest clerical offense that occurred today, Ash Wednesday, in Rome, namely, the Pope's attempt to shift the focus again by recasting the crimes of abuse and their cover-up as just "sins" and a "failure of faith"-- thereby subtly shifting the focus to the "spiritual" realm where the Church "reigns supreme". It is obvious to me as an experienced attorney that the steps the Church is taking are driven mainly by defensive legal strategy considerations, rather than primarily by policies aimed at protecting defenseless children or at showing long overdue compassion for present victims. Joseph Ratzinger, the current pope, served briefly in the military at the end of the Second World War but at a very critical time in his youth. He saw then up close raw power in operation. I personally believe Joseph Ratzinger understands fully how to use power and how to maintain it by all available means. I respect him, but I will not worship him! I have little hope that his forthcomimg "pastoral letter" will make much difference.-----------------In very general, but substantially correct terms: During its early centuries the Church had mainly a consensual leadership structure. Leaders were chosen by the faithful and supported by voluntary contributions. Disputes were resolved by dialogue. The Church flourished. In the 4th century Roman imperial pressures from Constantine and his successors, along with some papal opportunism, led to a handcuffing of the Church to secular power. Church leadership thereafter became hierarchical and self-perpetuating. Church support became obligatory and disputes were settled by coercive power, some times fatally.---------In 1870, the handcuffs were removed when the Vatican lost its remaining secular power in Italy. Since 1870 there has been absolutely no reason, political, theological or otherwise, preventing a return by the Church to its original consensual structure with parish priests, bishops and even the Pope being selected (and removed, where appropriate) by the faithful . The hierarchy, having for 1,500 years enjoyed the generous benefits of power, including in some cases lavish lifestyles and illicit sexual relationships, not surprisingly wants to hold on to power. In a desperate attempt to retain some power, Pius IX in 1869 created "infallibility", but this by 1980 was shown to have no legitimate historical basis by prominent theologians and by Brian Tierney, the US's foremost medieval historian, a layman at Cornell University. The Vatican also in 1929 made a dark deal to give Mussolini desparately needed Vatican recognition in exchange for the unprecedented Italian diplomatic agreement to treat the Catholic religion as a sovereign state, i.e., Vatican City. This is the sole legal, but very weak, basis for the Apostolic Nuncio being able outrageously to snub his nose at the Irish government--which the Irish government appears sheepishly to tolerate for inexplicable reasons. This should be changed also. -------------So what can be done? You can only either dialogue or negotiate. Dialogue, however, won't work here since it requires two parties who recognize each other in good faith as equal parties. The hierarchy does not, and will not, recognize the faithful as an equal as proven by its demonstrated refusal on innumerable occasions to take the faithful and their representatives seriously. Negotiation could work, however, but it requires that the faithful have adequate bargaining power to be taken seriously by the hierarchy. The only real power the faithful have is their purse. While the hierarchy has significant illiquid wealth (e.g., real estate, art,etc.), it needs, in order to avoid total insolvency, the steady cash contributions from the faithful, including especially prominent large contributors apparently often seeking prestige and favors from the hierarchy. All of these contributions are needed, especially in this bad economy and with the hierarchy's ever increasing scandal costs. I am assuming that, given Ireland's very serious fiscal crisis, the Irish government will not seriously consider again bailing out the hierarchy by subsiding with Irish taxpayer's funds the hierarchy's costs of past child abuse and their related coverups.----------- Publicity alone won't be enough. The tone-deaf hierarchy has shown repeatedly that they will bear the publicity damage rather than give up any power. The hierarchy seems to believe it can remain autocratic and and still get enough cash from docile, sincere, but insufficiently informed, Catholics to maintain their generous lifestyles, while also maintaining future minimum clerical staffing quotas by enticing, with considerable Church financial support, clerical prospects from the impoverished countries of Africa and Asia, etc. Foreign clergy are required since, understandably, few young people in Europe and North America have shown in recent years much interest in the clerical life, and, without major Church reforms, are unlikely to show much interest in the future.-------- Hence, I think the only way to get change and protect our children is to withhold and accumulate all future contibutions until convincing Church reform is really initiated. This contribution "strike" is very simple. Any Catholic in favor of reform just stops contributing (except for human services, education, etc.) and can resume contributions at will. Catholics who are satisfied with the present situation in the Church and not sufficiently concerned about protecting innocent children from future sexual abuse, could, of course, just continue contributing. All Catholics could continue receiving sacraments, etc. Its like a protest rent strike, which Irish patriots in earlier times used with some success against oppressive landlords. Sooner or later, a few bishops, perhaps including Archbishop Martin, then a few more, etc., will begin to negotiate. The Irish bishops would also gain some leverage with the Vatican since the Vatican would need to accomodate the financial pressure on the Irish Church. The contribution stike is a form of Christian love, "tough love", to cure those in the hierarchy addicted to power of their addiction and, most importantly, to protect defenseless children. I personally believe all Catholics have a clear moral obligation to protect children that far supercedes any duty they may have to preserve the present medieval structure in the Church. Ironically, it appears that well intentioned reform groups may, indirectly and unintentionally, be helping to some extent the harmful hierarchy's cause by providing a setting for disgruntled Catholics to vent their spleen, while not diminishing materially their cash contributions to the Church. As best I can tell, few in the hierarchy appear to have shown any real concern for disgruntled Catholics, so long as these Catholics continue making their cash contributions. People of Ireland, please wake up from your medieval dream and take back your Church!! Feel free to circulate or publish this--either completely or fairly selected portions. Please remove, however, the references to {deleted names} since I have not in the limited time available discussed this e-mail with them and in fairness do not want to ascribe my words to them. I have mentioned them only for puposes of your evaluating my background. Thank you.
Jerry Slevin