A type of bishopric anti-fatherhood has led countless priests in America to live out vocations tainted by fear, torment, and silent despair.
Crisis editor Eric Sammons has made written and spoken pleas for laity calm in the aftermath of Pope Leo XIV’s odd ice-block blessing and refusal to condemn Cardinal Blase Cupich’s decision to award a pro-abortion politician with a lifetime achievement honor. Even on gasket-blowing days like yesterday, when the Chicago-native pontiff promoted his fellow Chicagoan Cupich to the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State, Sammons’ call for calm is as wise as it is necessary.
But why?
The Roman Catholic Church is facing a spiritual epidemic unlike any it has ever known; it is as large—and mostly unrecognized —as any crisis in today’s American Catholic Church: Beneath the weight of what might best be described as a priestly anti-fatherhood episcopate—bishops who relate to their priests not as spiritual fathers, but as absent or even abusive ones—countless priests in America are left to live their vocations in silent despair.
Burdened by anger, isolation, depression, and the tormenting fear of episcopal reprisal, countless priests’ joy has been stolen away, leaving behind only shadows of the men they once prayed and hoped to become.
The spiritual orphaning of dutiful and once-vibrant priests can’t be measured, but its consequences are unmistakable: It has crippled the Church from within by accelerating the exodus of Catholics over the past fifteen years, including countless millions of the Church’s youth, who have fled the Faith and now dwell in a secularized and changing world where God seems to be vanishing.
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