TOM URBANIAK: Can appalled Catholics repair the church?

Thousands of children would have been spared agony and abuse if the Roman Catholic bishops had listened to the reasonable requests of Francis Hodur and his parishioners. Instead, those good Catholics were excommunicated – thrown out.

For daring to ask questions, they were literally threatened with damnation.

A humbled and scandal-plagued church should now, finally, embrace the “Bishop Hodur model.”

I want to take you back briefly to 1897. The place: Scranton, Pennsylvania.

The Diocese of Scranton happens to be featured in the recent stomach-churning report of the Pennsylvania grand jury. That report chronicles systematic and cynical cover-ups of horrific sexual abuse of children by more than 300 priests. It’s a story all too familiar to us in Nova Scotia, as it is in Catholic dioceses around the world.

Scranton and the surrounding region of northeastern Pennsylvania are similar to industrial Cape Breton in many ways. Immigrants came from around the world to work in the coal mines. The Catholic church was powerful.

My academic research has led me to recently visit Scranton.

More than a century ago, many of the newcomers to the Scranton area were Polish Roman Catholics. Their homeland was divided among foreign powers. In their occupied country, the Poles had few economic opportunities. What’s more, they were often punished for using their language, ceremonies and customs.

Those who came to America sought freedom.

Instead, they found oppression in the mines -- and in the church. Their bishop and priests mocked their traditions and language. The parishioners were ordered to never question the administration of their parishes. Priests had full rein to abuse the people under their charge.

Parishioners had no say in who was their pastor. And if bad priests siphoned parishioners’ money to enrich themselves, that was none of the parishioners’ business.

A final straw came when the immigrants were told that the church they were building had to be signed over to the bishop himself. The bishop was the “corporation sole” for the whole diocese.

The parishioners resisted this instruction. Their punishment was to be denial of the sacraments.

In desperation, the parishioners turned to a compassionate priest they knew – a Polish-born Pennsylvania clergyman named Francis Hodur. The young priest was aware of a pattern of similar incidents.

Hodur agreed to help and to serve. He decided to go directly to Rome, hoping to speak with the pope.

Hodur was denied a papal audience. Instead, he got a stern lecture about obedience from a Polish cardinal who was residing in Rome. When Hodur returned to the United States, he learned that he and his parishioners had been excommunicated.

Undaunted, these resilient Catholics kept going. They formed a Catholic (but not Roman) denomination -- a network that quickly grew to more than 100 Polish Catholic parishes. They eventually elected Hodur as bishop. Their structure was based on what they had tried in vain to recommend to the Roman bishops: Parishes would own their properties. Parishes would be entitled to financial transparency. Parish priests would be approved jointly by bishops and elected parish councils. Candidates for bishop would be vetted by synods with lay representation. Bishops would be subject to some oversight by a council.

And as of their 1921 synod, the priests could choose to marry. The thinking was that the church should not demonize healthy sexuality, nor should the priests be a secretive, separate caste.

There is an interesting Cape Breton connection to Bishop Hodur. Father Antoni Plucinski was one of the small group of priests who was with Hodur in the early years. However, Plucinski eventually reconciled with Rome. He was sent to Sydney – to Whitney Pier -- where in 1913 he became the first pastor of St. Mary’s Polish Parish.

Although he was again a Roman Catholic by the time he got to Cape Breton, Plucinski’s experiences alongside Hodur served him well. Plucinski arranged for the donated St. Mary’s property to be received under a special trust. He supported active lay involvement in parish governance.

In Hodur’s time, the Roman Catholic hierarchy didn’t care for concerns about oversight and accountability. And in our time, it is still not letting go of power. But we know that unaccountable, autocratic structures create ripe conditions for abuse.

Something has to change soon to let the Holy Spirit – and some humility - into the Roman Catholic Church. If not, the abuses of power will continue in one form or another. The church as a spiritual organization with any connection to Christ will die. How many more incidents, victims, survivors and cover-ups will it take? How much more misappropriation?

The “Bishop Hodur model” would be a good reference point for reform.

Tom Urbaniak, Ph.D., is a professor of political science at Cape Breton University. He is a practicing, concerned Catholic. He can be reached at [email protected] .