Alleged corruption in the Catholic Church

Alleged corruption in the Catholic Church includes both present-day and historical allegations that the Catholic Church operates in a manner inconsistent with its teaching. Corruption allegations may concern doctrine, such as syncretism with paganism or practice, such as concerns about clerical sex abuse, or both, such as the fight over episcopal versus trustee ownership of Church assets. Corruption allegations may be generated by non-Catholics, individual Catholic laypeople, clergy, and even popes.

Sexual abuse

Main articles: Catholic Church sexual abuse cases and Leadership Conference of Women Religious § Sexual abuse of nuns by clerics

See also: Catholic Church sex abuse cases by country and Debate on the causes of clerical child abuse

Sexual abuse has existed in the Catholic Church since at least as far back as the 11th century, when Peter Damian wrote a scathing treatise, Liber Gomorrhianus, against such abuses and others. In the late 15th century, Katharina von Zimmern and her sister were removed from their abbey to live in their family's house for a while partly because the young girls were molested by priests. In 1531, Martin Luther claimed that Pope Leo X had vetoed a measure that cardinals should restrict the number of boys they kept for their pleasure, "otherwise it would have been spread throughout the world how openly and shamelessly the pope and the cardinals in Rome practice sodomy."

The Papal states were the last European nation to prohibit the castration of boys for the purpose of producing castrato singers. It was not outlawed until 1870.

2011 graffiti in Portugal depicting a priest chasing two children.

The accusations began to receive isolated, sporadic publicity from the late 1980s. By the 1990s, the cases began to receive significant media and public attention in some countries, especially in Canada, the United States, Australia and, through a series of television documentaries. In January 2002, allegations of priests sexually abusing children were widely reported in the news media. It became clear that the officials of various Catholic dioceses were aware of some of the abusive priests, and shuffled them from parish to parish (sometimes after psychotherapy), in some cases without removing them from contact with children. A survey of the 10 largest U.S. dioceses found 234 priests from a total 25,616 in those dioceses, have had allegations of sexual abuse made against them in the last 50 years. The report does not state how many of these have been proven in court.

Some of these reassignments were egregious, the worst leading to the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law from the Boston archdiocese. Victims of such abuse filed lawsuits against a number of dioceses, resulting in multi-million dollar settlements in some cases. Similar allegations of abuse in Ireland led to the publication of the Ferns report in 2005, which stated that appropriate action was not taken in response to the allegations.

In response, in June 2002, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops initiated strict new guidelines ("zero tolerance") for the protection of children and youth in Catholic institutions across the country. The Vatican revisited what it regarded as the issue of homosexuality and a gay subculture within the clergy, because the vast majority of the cases consisted of males preying on male adolescents (over 90% of the sexual abuse victims were teenage boys rather than girls or prepubescents).

In 2014, the United Nations focused some attention on this topic. The Permanent Representative of the Holy See to the UN, Silvano Maria Tomasi, appeared before the Committee against Torture and reported that during the previous ten years, 3420 cases of abuse against minors had been investigated and 884 priests had been removed from their positions and reduced to lay status.

Clericalism

For an official doctrinal statement against clericalism, see Ad gentes § 3. Particular Churches (19-22).

In 2013, the Catholic Scholars' Declaration on Authority in the Church was published with a list of polity changes thought to help solve the problem.

Historical allegation of clericalism

In his 1520 Treatise on the New Testament, Martin Luther argued that clericalism was a result of canon law:

Yea, the priests and the monks are deadly enemies, wrangling about their self-conceived ways and methods like fools and madmen, not only to the hindrance, but to the very destruction of Christian love and unity. Each one clings to his sect and despises the others; and they regard the lay-men as though they were no Christians. This lamentable condition is only a result of the laws.

Other historical allegations of clericalism can be found in the 16th century Spanish novella The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes and of His Fortunes and Adversities.

Clerical narcissism

A Catholic deacon and a scholar at a Catholic university have criticized the Catholic priesthood for having some narcissistic priests. In 2007, Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea wrote,

For the priest who is vulnerable to clericalist narcissism, and to the bishop embedded in it, the interpretation of ontological change that posits an actual merger with the being of Jesus Christ at the moment of ordination can support a belief that clergy are called by God to be inherently superior to other human beings.

Annulments

Popes Benedict XVI and John Paul II criticized the Catholic Church on the issue of the overuse of annulments to marriage, but Francis made changes to canon law to make it easier to get annulments. He also asked dioceses to charge no fees for annulments "insofar as possible."

Issues involving money and assets

Financial corruption

For papal simony, see Papal selection before 1059 § Ostrogothic rule (493–537)

Abbot practising simony (France, 12th century). Instances of simony have been documented going back to the 9th century.

In the 14th century, Dante Alighieri depicted the punishment of many "clergymen, and popes and cardinals" in hell for being avaricious or miserly.

He also criticised certain popes and other simoniacs:

"Rapacious ones, who take the things of God, / that ought to be the brides of Righteousness, / and make them fornicate for gold and silver! / The time has come to let the trumpet sound / for you; ...".

In the 18th century, Niccolò Coscia ruined the papal treasury through financial misconduct.

In 1969, Dorothy Day wrote, "Fortunately, the Papal States were wrested from the Church in the last century, but there is still the problem of investment of papal funds. It is always a cheering thought to me that if we have good will and are still unable to find remedies for the economic abuses of our time, in our family, our parish, and the mighty church as a whole, God will take matters in hand and do the job for us."

The Legion of Christ's multi-million dollar offshore holdings were revealed in the so-called Paradise Papers leak in November 2017. The 2012 Vatican leaks scandal described alleged bribes paid to secure an audience with the pope.

In the 1980s there was a major scandal involving money laundering for the mafia and other financial controversies going back to the 1960s.

Annates

In his 1520 To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, Martin Luther wrote:

Every prince, nobleman and city should boldly forbid their subjects to pay the annates to Rome and should abolish them entirely; for the pope has broken the compact, and made the annates a robbery, to the injury and shame of the whole German nation. He gives them to his friends, sells them for large amounts of money, and uses them to endow offices. He has thus lost his right to them, and deserves punishment.

Usury

Concerns about usury included the 19th century Rothschild loans to the Holy See and 16th century objections over abuse of the zinskauf clause. This was particularly problematic because the charging of interest (all interest, not just excessive interest) was a violation of doctrine at the time, such as that reflected in the 1745 encyclical Vix pervenit. As a result, work-arounds were employed. For example, in the 15th century, the Medici Bank lent money to the Vatican, which was lax about repayment. Rather than charging interest, "the Medici overcharged the pope on the silks and brocades, the jewels and other commodities they supplied." However, the 1917 Code of Canon Law switched position and allowed church monies to be used to accrue interest.

Fees for spiritual things

In his 1537 Smalcald Articles, Martin Luther noted that "innumerable and unspeakable abuses have arisen in the whole world from the buying and selling of masses," and was recorded as once saying, "The mass has devoured infinite sums of money."

Italian priest Pino Puglisi refused money from Mafia members when offered it for the traditional feast day celebrations, and also resisted the Mafia in other ways, for which he was martyred in 1993.

In 2014, Pope Francis criticized the practice of charging altarage fees or honorariums for things like baptisms, blessings, and Mass intentions (such as Masses for the dead).

In 2018, Pope Francis criticized the selling of masses for the dead, stating, "the Mass is not paid for, redemption is free, if I want to make an offering, well and good, but Mass is free." In response, Archbishop Julian Leow Beng Kim and two bishops put out a press release reminding Catholics that according to canon law, "any priest celebrating or concelebrating is permitted to receive an offering to apply the Mass for a specific intention."

In 2019 a parish in the Philippines withdrew a planned fee hike for weddings after an outbreak of outrage on social media. The fee had been about $6,000 per wedding, but they were going to raise it to $9,800.

Although the granting of indulgences for money went back to the 6th century, in 1567 Pope Pius V banned the sale of indulgences for money.

Episcopal vs. congregational ownership of parish facilities

Main articles: Trusteeism § United States, and Administrator (of ecclesiastical property) § Lay administration

In the U.S beginning in approximately 1780 there was a struggle between lay trustees and bishops over the ownership of church property, with the trustees losing control following the 1852 Plenary Councils of Baltimore.

In 2005, an interdict was issued to board members of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church (St. Louis, Missouri) in an attempt to get them to turn over the church property to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis.

In 2006, a priest was accused of stealing $1.4 million from his parish, prompting a debate over Connecticut Raised Bill 1098 as a means of forcing the Catholic church to manage money differently.

In some cases, parishes have been liquidated and the assets taken by the diocese instead of being distributed to nearby parishes, which in violation of church financial rules.

Rent-seeking behaviour and politics

From the 20th century to the present

The Vatican City became a financial powerhouse following the 1929 Lateran Treaty.

In 1962, a letter writing campaign attempted to prevent the construction of the Watergate complex on the grounds that zoning waivers would not have been given had the Vatican not been a major investor.

When Ronald Reagan attempted to tax fraternal insurance companies such as the Knights of Columbus, then–Supreme Knight Virgil Dechant used White House connections to scuttle the effort. In addition, local Knights of Columbus councils set up phone banks and letter writing campaigns to oppose the measure.

In 2003, John L. Allen Jr. placed the annual operating budget of the Vatican at about $260 million, with the Patrimony of the Apostolic See holding an endowment of about $770 million.

In May 2013, Chicago alderman Patrick J. O'Connor argued that the Catholic Church and other religious institutions and not for profit organizations should pay property taxes and be billed for water, and criticized them for objecting.

In 2015, the Bishop of Oslo was charged with fraud for inflating membership rolls for the Catholic Church in Norway and the diocese had to repay some of its subsidy.

Moral laxity

Historical allegations

Pelagius

When Pelagius moved to Rome around 380, he became concerned about the moral laxity of society. He blamed this laxity on the theology of divine grace preached by Augustine, among others.

Melanchthon and Luther

In his 1537 Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Philipp Melanchthon argued against the concept of imperfect contrition on the basis that it leaves the penitent person uncertain:

When, however, will a terrified conscience, especially in those serious, true, and great terrors which are described in the psalms and the prophets, and which those certainly taste who are truly converted, be able to decide whether it fears God for His own sake, or is fleeing from eternal punishments?

In his 1537 Smalcald Articles, Martin Luther attacked the Catholic doctrine of imperfect contrition, arguing that "such contrition was certainly mere hypocrisy, and did not mortify the lust for sins; for they had to grieve, while they would rather have continued to sin, if it had been free to them." Instead he argued that "repentance is not piecemeal," and "In like manner confession, too, cannot be false, uncertain, or piecemeal."

Historiography on historical nuns

Further information: Benedetta Carlini

In 2010, Craig Monson wrote Nuns Behaving Badly, which dealt with the social and sexual lives of religious women in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italy.

Ongoing controversy involving moral laxity

In in his 2016 Amoris laetitia, Pope Francis stated, "Because of forms of conditioning and mitigating factors, it is possible that in an objective situation of sin – which may not be subjectively culpable, or fully such – a person can be living in God’s grace, can love and can also grow in the life of grace and charity, while receiving the Church’s help to this end." He was criticized for this and other statements by Catholic scholars in the 2017 petition Correctio filialis de haeresibus propagatis.

Paganized Christianity

Harvey Newcomb, in his 1833 The Great Apostasy: Being an Account of the Origin, Rise and Progress of Corruption and Tyranny in the Church of Rome criticized the Catholic Church because he believed that the latter allowed the Roman traditions back into the church. Likewise, Mormon James E. Talmadge's 1909 The Great Apostasy Considered in the Light of Scriptural and Secular History, stated that to conciliate Pagans to nominal Christianity, the Catholic Church took measures to combine the Christian and Pagan festivals. Talmadge's book is based on B. H. Roberts' 1893 Outlines of Ecclesiastical History. Both writers borrowed heavily from the writings of Protestant scholars who argued that Roman Catholicism had apostatized from true Christianity.

Newcomb and others say that Easter derives from (a celebration of the Germanic goddess Ēostre) as a 'substitute' for Passover, though no record of Christian celebrations have necessarily yet been found that indicate that the celebration of Easter was observed as importantly before the second century. In most European languages Easter is called by some variant of the late Latin word Pascha, which in turn derives from the Hebrew pesach, meaning passover. Ēostre is attested solely by Bede in his 8th-century work The Reckoning of Time, where Bede states that during Ēosturmōnaþ (the equivalent of April), Anglo-Saxons had held feasts in Ēostre's honour, but that this tradition had died out by his time.

Neoplatonism in theology

In general Catholics have approved of incorporating elements from Neoplatonism and other Hellenistic philosophy into Christianity, despite their pagan roots. Pope Benedict XVI argued that the Protestant Reformation served to de-Hellenize Christianity. Nonetheless another element from paganism, Pandeism, plays a role in Catholic theology today, although its legitimacy is controversial, as reflected in the 2011 controversy between the theologian Elizabeth Johnson and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

New Age and Catholicism

Although there are some New Age Catholics, the New Age movement was officially rejected in the 2003 book A Christian Reflection on the New Age. Following his excommunication and reduction to lay status, Tomislav Vlašić founded Central Nucleus, a New Age movement that combines private revelation and Catholic theology with pseudoscience and astrology. This one example of how some prefer a greater role for paganism while accepting some Catholic influences in a syncretistic manner. As such, some people may self-identify as Catholic while not belonging to the Roman Catholic Church.