Grief, Loss, and Death by Weaver Andrew J.;Weidner Halbert;

Author:Weaver, Andrew J.;Weidner, Halbert; [DPhil, Halbert Weidner, CO,]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2022-06-03T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5 Nothing Personal: Lawyers and Ministry As Business

DOI: 10.4324/9781315785677-5

A small incident from my past has become emblematic of a crisis that blew up thirty years later in the Catholic Church in the United States. I was applying to the Catholic School Department in a small diocese and parked my car by the Cathedral School. When I came out I saw some Cathedral students from an upper story splatter my old Volkswagen with lacquer. The estimated repair was $200, which in those days represented half a month’s salary. When I presented the claim to the insurance agency representing the diocese I was only offered half. I was naïve enough to be astonished. I was a teacher in the diocese, earning $400 a month. I needed to make two months’ deposit to get an apartment, and now the diocese was going to make me pay a quarter of my month’s wages to fix something they were responsible for. I said no to the offer not knowing what to do next. A week later, I returned because it was an offer better than nothing and taking one’s employer to small claims court could lead to real problems. Then I was really astonished. The agent said the offer was no longer an option. I would have to sue to get the money. Later, I met the chancellor, a young priest, and I told him the story. He was very sympathetic, but nothing ever got done about it.

Now thirty years later, a commission of lay people have lacerated American bishops in their study of the sex abuse scandals and the additional scandal of how too many bishops have dealt with it. Specifically, the bishops were taken to task for playing hardball with the victims following the advice of insurance companies and lawyers. Many bishops could not be accused of being pastors in the face of the crisis, but more like CEOs. Would this be new behavior or typical behavior of many bishops not only in the face of sex abuse but of many other pastoral challenges? At any rate, the commission called for more pastors and fewer administrators in the episcopacy.

As a priest at graduate school, I used to search out the law students in the dining room and sit with them. After all, in the Gospels, Jesus goes after the lawyers and the priests as much as anyone. The lawyers were not amused at my preference for their company.

As a priest, I know very well why Jesus targeted both priests and lawyers. When I was an administrator, some community members came to me to ask that our summer religion camp be made independent, that is, forced to get its own insurance and tax-exempt status. Summer camps were potentially accidents and lawsuits waiting to happen. I did not force the separation. We were in home mission territory, Catholics were less than 3 percent of the population, the camp was part of our religious formation program in a four-county area with only one small Catholic school.

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