The Toledo Crucible

Last Friday night we watched Arthur Miller’s The Crucible at a film discussion group at our parish. The ensuing discussion did not turn on it, but I was struck by the way in which the Salem witch trials were driven by a mutually reinforcing system of ecclesial and legal authorities. The play, which contains a number of historical inaccuracies came to mind when Saturday’s Washington Post had this story

TOLEDO, Ohio -- Police helped the Catholic Diocese of Toledo cover up sex abuse allegations for several decades, refusing to investigate or arrest priests suspected of molesting children, a newspaper reported Sunday.

While I recognize that the situations are not parallel, I was struck by the combination of police and church authorities working together to defend the church from scandal – and innocent people being hurt as a result.

Institutions, in this case a police department and the Diocese of Toledo, are created to further a good cause. Officials, concerned to further that good cause, begin to be more concerned with protecting the institution that carrying out their original mission. It happens so often that there is an engineering proverb to cover this case:

“Having lost sight of our objective, we redoubled our efforts.”

I’ve written about this phenomenon before. Institutions, just like persons can be blind to the truth and engage in institutionalized denial. Arthur Miller’s play is a case study. I’m afraid that the Toledo story is another.