Lack of Church Discipline in the Church of Rome
The Scots Confession of Faith of 1560 maintains that the marks of the true Church are the preaching of the Word of God, the due administration of the sacraments, and the exercise of Church discipline. None of these things were found in the Church of Rome at the Reformation, and none of them are found in her today. Her absence of discipline has especially been exposed by the ongoing child-abuse scandals; and while the world pays little regard to her false doctrines and corrupt practices, it has been taking notice of her lack of discipline. Even the world can see that there must be a problem in the admission of priests, when a disproportionate number of them turn out to be child-abusers. And there is an even worse problem when the conduct of child-abusing priests comes to the attention of those responsible for their discipline; the main effort then seems to be to cover up what they have done.
One case which emerged recently was that of a Scottish priest in Prestwick, Father Moore, who informed his Bishop, Maurice Taylor, that he had been guilty of serious child-abuse some years previously. The priest was privately removed from the “pastoral ministry” and sent to a sex-offenders clinic in Canada. On his return he was ordered to join the Benedictine monks at Fort Augustus Abbey; and when the Abbey closed in 1998, the Bishop tried, unsuccessfully, to get him a position saying mass for nuns at a nursing home. Father Moore should clearly have been deposed from his office, but instead he was shuffled from one place to another until he could be hidden no longer. As far as we know he is still not deposed.
Church discipline is far from easy, and it requires great wisdom to balance the various duties involved. One duty is to preserve the purity of the Church (1 Cor 5:7); another is to seek the spiritual restoration of the guilty party (2 Cor 2:6-7); a third is to ensure that the case is fairly conducted, and is seen to be so by those who know about it; a fourth is to avoid doing Satan’s work by publicising scandal unnecessary. The office-bearers of the Church must look to Christ for wisdom when faced with these difficulties.
The Church of Rome, having forsaken the doctrines of Christ, has neither part nor lot with Him, and cannot therefore look to Him for help in cases of discipline. Instead those in authority in her ranks have to follow their own wisdom. Their general policy is to place the reputation of the Church of Rome ahead of other considerations and to hide the scandals if possible. At the same time, some of them turn out to be watching their own backs, in that they are guilty of the same or related scandalous behaviour. Cardinal O’Brien seems to have been a case in point. At the Reformation many priests had concubines, and it was impossible to discipline them because the Bishops were as guilty as they were. A similar situation might well prevail now. The Church of Rome is beyond reformation, according to Scripture, but there is a lesson for Protestant Churches: to maintain discipline, painful though it may be in some cases. Discipline is a mark and a duty of the Church, and the world takes notice whether the Church’s discipline is consistent with her professed standards.
DWBS