Bucks
Pope Gambet Riegler
Dear Friends,
Good morning. As the Roman Catholic pedophilia scandal expanded in most of Europe, I talked with two of my favorite priests during Easter Holy week. Father Fred Riegler is the pastor of St. Isidore’s Catholic Church in Quakertown. Father Dan Gambet is the immediate past President of DeSales University in Center Valley.
Let me begin with these quotes from a March 31 Associated Press story. “Many Roman Catholics around the world are finding their relationship to the church painfully tested by new revelations of clerical abuse and suggestions [Cardinal] Benedict himself may have helped cover up cases in Germany and the U.S.
“There are fears that for those whose commitment is already wavering, the scandal could be the final blow, and a growing chorus is clamoring for the church to embrace full transparency, take a hard line against pedophiles, and reconsider the rule of priestly celibacy.”
I asked these questions of Father Gambet and Riegler: Should the Pope resign? Should the Pope end the requirement of celibacy for priests? When will women be admitted to the priesthood?
“No, the Pope will not resign,” Father Gambet began. “You can bet the farm on that! There are two good reasons. The first is theological. The Holy Spirit selects the Pope. And second, this Pope has been energetic and forthright in apologizing for the Church’s priests. And he’s established protocols to insure that these cases don’t happen again.
“It won’t eliminate it completely [sexual abuse by priests],” Father Gambet continued. “There are sick people out there in the sacred and secular world. Still under Joseph Ratzinger (who was a Cardinal in Germany before becoming Pope Benedict XVI), the right steps are being taken. He may have made a mistake in Germany but he’s done tremendous good in correcting abuse. You can’t undo the damage but you can work to not let it happen again.”
Father Riegler was more critical. Speaking about the Catholic hierarchy at the Cardinal and Vatican levels, Father Riegler says that this crisis is touching a lot of people. “People in our parishes are looking for transparency,” he began. “We priests are in the trenches and it’s like facing another artillery barrage. Is there any more bad news coming? When will these terrible stories end? There’s no answer. Parishioners are upset about how these crimes against children are being handled.
“The
Vatican is protecting the Pope but that only makes it worse,”
Father Riegler added. “Parishioners are
OK with local priests, but they’re not with the hierarchy. The Church is not
dealing with pedophilia intelligently. The Vatican should tell the press that
if it thinks the Church is hiding something, “Come in and look” [at all
documents previously kept hidden].
“The plan to make Pope Pius XII a saint is the same problem,” Father Riegler said. “It’s the lack of transparency.” Pius XII was the Pope during World War II and is criticized for not standing up against Hitler. Those who’ve read John Cornwell’s bestseller, “Hitler’s Pope,” wonder why Pope Benedict is championing Pius XII?
“Child abuse is the same problem,” Father Riegler added, referring to the controversy swirling around the Vatican. “The Church should open the archives. Let the sun shine in.
“I wish the Vatican would pick a third party to look at the archives and give an unbiased report,” Father Riegler said. “It’s not the media at fault. It’s the result of people saying ‘what else is out there?’ Personally, I think that the Pope is innocent. But why does the Church keep this story a secret? It’s unhealthy.”
And speaking about health, I’ve always felt that the requirement for celibacy in the priesthood was counter productive. Father Gambet had an interesting response when I broached the subject of celibacy.
“If I live to be 100, maybe [a relaxation of the celibacy requirement],” he began. “I’m 80 years old. Celibacy won’t happen in my lifetime. What the Church should do is to permit female deacons and create a permanent Deaconate for married or single men. That would be a smart first step. They could do weddings, funerals, and preach. They could not conduct the mass or hear confessions.
“Tradition is so important in the Church,” Father Gambet continued. “It trumps everything except scripture. Then again, for more than 1,000 years, the Church had a tradition of married clergy. The reason for celibacy is economic. The Church didn’t want to end the obligation of caring for [priests’] widows and children, rather diverting that cost to running schools.”
I reminded Father Gambet that his mental and physical health is superb…he looks like he’s 60. I told him that he’d easily reach 100 so the option for priests to choose celibacy or marriage may be lying just around the corner.
In fact, the Vatican has allowed priests in the Ukraine to marry for nearly 500 years. Why? The Vatican feared that the Eastern Church was luring its Priests away from Rome’s authority.
We turned to the problems facing Christianity. “All religion is in trouble in America and Europe,” Father Gambet told me. “Demographics are at the core. Look at birth rates. For example in Italy, a very Catholic country, the birthrate is only 1.1 [child per family] but Muslim families have five children.”
With Muslims emigrating to Europe and America at a fast clip, and a birthrate ratio of 5 to one, will Christians be in the minority in just three generations? That’s a subject for another day.
I’ll close with a quip from Father Riegler whose quick whit and kind approach to life is so refreshing. When our discussions began about what the Vatican knew about sex abuse in the American and European priesthood and why it condoned moving pedophile priests from one parish to another, Father Riegler offered this:
“Asking me about what’s happening at the Vatican is like responding to this question: “What do you think about your wife’s weight? There’s no good answer.”
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith