1 1 Catholic Clergy Sexual Abuse Meets the Civil Law by Thomas P ...

authoritarian style of ministerial leadership, a rigidly hierarchical worldview, and a
virtual identification of the holiness and grace of the church with the clerical state. 333
The report acknowledged that more oppressive forms of clerical domination and
privilege breed anti-clericalism. 334 This has been especially true when clerical
domination and influence has spilled over into civil life. This influence in civil life has
taken many faces: from free dinners for clerics, to bishops who influence the justice
system when their particular interests are involved. 335
Significant voices among faithful Catholics have looked at the contemporary
ecclesiastical landscape, and have wondered if the momentum initiated by Vatican II has
not only dwindled but has been urged along in its slow death by the centralizing influence
of the clericalized Roman curia. 336 Perhaps the most significant call has come from
Franz Cardinal Konig, retired archbishop of Vienna who was a key figure at the Vatican
council. The Cardinal sums up the problem by accusing the present-day Roman curia of
undermining the vision and direction of the Vatican Council with its present style of
centralized leadership in his statement: “A gradual decentralization is needed . . . . What
is often felt to be defective is the present style of leadership practi[c]ed by the authorities
in the Roman curia in dealing with the diverse and multiple dioceses throughout the
world.” 337
Canon Law has consistently favored and protected clerics. The 1917 Code of
Canon Law, the first such codification in the church’s history, contained several canons
333
Id.
334
Id.
335
See Cozzens, supra note 313, at 121-123.
336
See Collins, supra note 321, at 97-117.
337
Franz Cardinal Konig, My Vision for the Church of the Future, Tablet Mar. 27, 1999, available at
http://www.thetablet.co.uk/cgi-bin/archive_db.cgi?tablet-00268.
60