not easy

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Mar 03, 2005

George Weigel on the upcoming apostolic visitation of seminaries.

The purpose of a visitation is to ascertain the truth about the spiritual, moral and intellectual life of the institution being visited. The primary task of the visitators, in interviewing faculty, staff and students, is to establish the truth about this particular situation. That is not going to be easy.

Those who have built careers by skating around issues like improper sexual activity in seminaries and houses of formation are not going to want those careers jeopardized. Those who have seen problems and yet have not had the courage to name them for what they are must be encouraged to tell the truth, even if the truth is painful -- and so must students, who must be confident that they will not be jeopardizing their chances for a positive faculty evaluation if they tell the truth to visitators. Which means that students must be assured that their comments to visitators will be held in the strictest confidentiality.