The Plague

In this time of general upheaval and the upending of “normal” life I thought I would “entertain” myself by reading a book I have had for quite a while but never read – the aptly entitled “The Plague” by Albert Camus, written in 1947. Many of the observations and much of the storyline is very appropriate for what is happening in these COVID19 times.

The novel reports on the characters reactions to a plague in the Algerian city of Oran (which last had a real plague in the 16^th and 17^th Centuries with further outbreaks in the 1930s and in 1944). I thought the following passage, towards the end of the book, was quite apt, being applicable to many countries (unfortunately not all).

“Although this sudden decline in the disease was unexpected, the townspeople were in no hurry to celebrate. The preceding months, though they had increased the desire for liberation, had also taught them prudence and accustomed them to count less and less on a rapid end to the epidemic. However, this new development was the subject of every conversation and, in the depths of people’s hearts, there was a great, unadmitted hope. All else was secondary. The new victims of the plague counted for little beside this outstanding fact: the figures were going down. One of the signs that a return to a time of good health was secretly expected (although no one admitted the fact) was that from this moment on people readily spoke, with apparent indifference, about how life would be reorganized after the plague.

Everyone agreed that the amenities of former times would not be restored overnight and that it was easier to destroy than to rebuild.”

Sound familiar?

The Catholic Church and confessions.

In light of the Royal Commission into child abuse – set up by the Australian Government – it is important for the Catholic Church to accept that the world has moved on. The Catholic Church no longer has the influence it exerted in the middle-ages and the confessional is not what it once was.

The World is now, for better or worse, largely a secular world; a world in which spirituality is waning.

The confessional should be a place, a time, when a person admits to God before a witness that they have “sinned”. This may be satisfactory for them as they will have made their peace with God. But this can never be the end of the story. The “sinner” now has to make their peace with society. And society demands justice; society demands justice that is not only done but seen to be done. This means the courts of law to establish the extent of the “sin” (crime) and the determination of the type and extent of the punishment; this means a punishment according to the law as determined by the society in which the “sin” was committed; this means doing “time” or paying a penalty of some kind.

This is Justice.

Now, to have a clergyman, however exalted, say that a confession is inviolable and above the law of the land is plain wrong. It may be sacred (according to the Catholic Church) in the “eyes of God” but people, both perpetrators and victims live in the world; people suffer and will seek redress of some kind. For the Catholic clergy to hide behind the “sanctity” of the confessional and therefore ignore the plight of the victim(s) will not work today.

This is not justice.

If a clergyman – or any person for that matter – is guilty of child abuse of any kind they need to be tried in the courts – they need to pay the penalty.   

This is justice.