Off the Shelf: History Repeats Itself

NRO ^ | September 9, 2018 | Michael Brendan Dougherty

[sitetest]

My son masters himself as he masters the language. Every word he acquires means he’s internalizing how to navigate a new social interaction...

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Mankowski describes the difficulty of reporting abuse of any kind to a man like this:

Occasionally someone manages to break through the insulation and deal with the responsible churchman himself. In this case, another maneuver is typically employed, one I tried to sketch eight years ago in an essay called “Tames in Clerical Life”:

In one-on-one situations, tames in positions of authority will rarely flatly deny the validity of a complaint of corruption lodged by a subordinate. More often they will admit the reality and seriousness of the problem raised, and then pretend to take the appellant into their confidence, assuring him that those in charge are fully aware of the crisis and that steps are being taken, quietly, behind the scenes, to remedy it. Thus the burden of discretion is shifted onto the subordinate in the name of concern for the good of the institution and personal loyalty to the administrator: a tame must not go public with his evidence of malfeasance lest he disrupt the process — invariably hidden from view — by which it is being put right.

This ruse has been called the Secret Santa maneuver: “There are no presents underneath the tree for you, but that’s because Daddy is down in the basement making you something special. It is supposed to be a surprise, so don’t breathe a word or you’ll spoil everything.” And, of course, Christmas never comes. Perhaps most of the well-intentioned efforts for reform in the past quarter century have been tabled indefinitely by high-ranking tames using this ploy to buy their way out of tough situations for which they are temperamentally unsuited.

[sitetest]

CATHOLIC CAUCUS

The essay is much longer than 300 words, and excerpts do it no justice,

An interesting take.

[sitetest]

Ping.

[narses]

I found the author’s comments regarding the current POTUS interesting. His views on the crisis are far more informed than most. He starts too late though - by the 1940s the sodomite graduates had already infiltrated the upper reaches of the Episcopate. Will find the thread that lays that out and ping you and ET.