CrossCurrents A Catholic Reflects on Faith in Our Times

Bernard F. Swain, Ph.D. www.CrossCurrents.us

Prudence and Policy

Despite my desire to avoid repeating myself, I keep coming back to the theme of prudence. Perhaps it’s because prudence is the most practical of all virtues, and my work connects me to the practical struggles of parish leaders and their people. Or perhaps it’s just because so many current members of the hierarchy show so little prudence—or even act like they’ve never heard of it!

Anyone who read last week’s CrossCurrents piece, “The Truth about Toby” (on the Vatican crackdown on adoptions to gay parents which has forced Catholic Charities of Boston out of the adoption business) must be wondering how anyone in a position of power could really believe that such a troubled little boy would be better off with no family and no parents at all than with the loving mothers who have restored his life to sanity and health?

Catholic Charities Boston has long specialized in placing older children, disabled children, children from abusive situations, mixed-race children—precisely the kind of kids almost no one wants to adopt. As the Boston Globe’s Jeff Jacoby reported:

Since 1987, of the 720 adoptions arranged through Catholic Charities in the past 19 years, almost 2/3 involved children who had been in foster care. No other private organization has placed more victimized, unwanted, or disabled Massachusetts children into permanent, loving homes. So it would be a huge tragedy if Catholic Charities were to pull the plug on its adoption services.

For many of these “difficult to place” kids, this will mean (at least) a longer wait to find a home, or even (at worst) no home at all. While so many Catholics bemoan the “priest shortage,” we generally ignore the parent shortage which, in Massachusetts alone, leaves 6000 kids parent-less – all of them products of heterosexual couples!

Some people have minimized the impact of the Vatican policy, saying “the Catholic Church is not a social service agency.” Former Vatican ambassador (and former Boston Mayor) Ray Flynn, for example, suggested the state might step in, since “its primary purpose is for the general welfare of the people” while “the Catholic Church is in the business of saving people’s souls.”

Yet Benedict XVI himself explained how silly this view is in his recent encyclical letter, “God is Love”:

For the Church, charity is not a kind of welfare activity which could equally well be left to others, but is a part of her nature, an indispensable expression of her very being.

In this light, it’s reasonable to wonder why the Vatican is so fixated on preventing such children from finding a home of their own, if that home is with gay parents.

It’s no good saying “Rome has spoken; case closed.” Ray Flynn, for one, thinks that way. Asked whether he believed, like the Vatican, that gay parents would do violence to their children, he said:

No, I don’t believe that. There are many very capable, conscientious gay couples. The fact is however that what I think and what the Catholic Charities board thinks as it relates to the Catholic faith, its teachings, is almost irrelevant… I think there has to be one, clear, consistent policy by the church.

But Ray Flynn is wrong. Our opinions are not irrelevant.

First of all, this is not a matter of Catholic faith or doctrine. The Church’s official position is that, while it is not wrong to be homosexual, such people suffer an “objective disorder.” But whether people are disordered or normal is a question of fact—just like the question of whether the earth revolves around the sun, or the question of whether humans evolved from lower life forms. And if science eventually proves that homosexuality is a naturally occurring (e.g., genetically determined) phenomenon within the human family, church teaching will adapt the same way it adapted to Galileo and Darwin.

Second, the current teaching does not force the conclusion that homosexuals are unfit parents. Even granting the Vatican’s premise about gay people, the fact is that a “disorder” is not automatically a disqualification. Many disordered people are nonetheless competent parents. Millions of parents suffer disorders ranging from dyslexia to diabetes, bulimia to bi-polarity, alcoholism to kleptomania. Church teaching does not say their children are endangered. Nor does the church require physical and moral perfection as a precondition for Christian parenthood.

In fact, Catholic teaching forbids discriminating against gays. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says: “They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.”

Yet homosexual parents are being singled out. Why? Because for many bishops (and many Catholics too) the “disorder” they suffer makes them morally unreliable parents.

But this is not a theological doctrine. It is a behavioral hypothesis, an assumption about a specific group of people, and about the impact of their homosexuality on their behavior. That assumption can be tested by observing the actual behavior of those people. This is not something lay Catholics must accept on faith simply because “Rome has spoken.” This is something we can verify—or disprove—by getting down to cases.

And that’s where prudence comes in: getting down to cases.

In the case of Catholic Charities of Boston, testing the hypothesis would be relatively easy. The controversial practice has only resulted in placing a child with gay parents 13 times in 20 years! We are not talking about complicated behavioral data spread over a large population. We are talking about 13 families! Were those children worse off, or not? Does really prudence warrant closing-down adoption services at Catholic Charities?

Before one disrupts a significant Catholic social service on the basis of a hypothesis, shouldn’t any prudent leader at least be willing to test that hypothesis? Wouldn’t that be the prudent (and therefore the virtuous) approach?

Sadly, no one in the hierarchy asked (or was even willing) to examine those 13 cases. Perhaps they were afraid of what they might find. Perhaps they feared the actual facts might not fit their abstract behavioral theories? But isn’t that exactly what prudence requires?

Right now the Church badly needs to restore its credibility as an institution capable of virtuous, wise leadership. But that requires more than well-intentioned policies; it also requires their wise application. Catholic tradition has long held that prudence must govern all other virtues, guiding their application in specific concrete cases. Prudence means determining when a policy, however sincere and logical, will do more harm than good in particular cases – and then acting to do the right thing.

That’s precisely what has not happened in the Catholic Charities case. Even Ray Flynn admitted, “no one wins here.” Not the kids who will go homeless. Not the state, which has lost its number one provider of tough placements. Not Catholic Charities, deprived of its core charity. Not the Catholic Church which, as Flynn says, “Looks like the bad guy.”

But this is what comes when leaders abandoned prudence. Instead of demonstrating prudence, they cling to their principles, they insist on their rigid application even when it means doing more harm than good. Instead of demonstrating the wise leadership we expect of them, they come instead to model folly.

In the end, and in the eyes of suffering children, they don’t just look like the bad guys—they are the bad guys.

© Bernard F. Swain PhD 2006

Send Your Comments and Questions to bfswain@juno.com

Dr. Swain’s opinions do not represent the views of this parish or any other official body.

Bernie Swain has devoted more than 30 years to adult spiritual formation in dioceses in the US, Canada, and France. Since 1991 he has maintained a private practice as trainer, teacher, and consultant to leaders in parishes and other religious organizations. He holds degrees in theology and political science from Holy Cross, Harvard, The University of Paris, and The University of Chicago.

His writings include Liberating Leadership (Harper & Row, 1986) and more than 200 articles in periodicals such as The National Catholic Reporter, Commonweal, The Miami Herald, The Catholic Free Press, The Pilot, Harvard Theological Review, and Liturgy.

A lifelong layperson, he lives in Boston with his wife and three children. Visit his website at:

http://www.CrossCurrents.us

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