A Failed Attempt to Enforce Priestly Celibacy? by Phil Lawler

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Cuture, Jan 03, 2025

Phil Lawler has been a Catholic journalist for more than 30 years. He has edited several Catholic magazines and written eight books. Founder of Catholic World News, he is the news director and lead analyst at CatholicCulture.org.

Back when ‘Diogenes’ was writing regularly for CatholicCulture, he made the point (in a private email, I’m sorry to say; not on this site) that when we say that an institution is thoroughly corrupt, we do not necessarily mean that the corruption extends to every member of the institution. I used his insight in a comment on corruption in the Catholic hierarchy:

In a corrupt police department—as seen in countless action movies—the problem is not simply that some cops take bribes from criminals. The problem is that honest cops cannot clean up the force, because whenever they report one venal colleague, they run into a superior who is also on the Mafia payroll, and will suppress the evidence. So the system rewards behavior that is at odds with the purposes of law enforcement. That sort of institutional corruption can be changed only by a thorough, dramatic, and probably painful house-cleaning. …

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