An Editorial Project on Institutional Accountability
History matters. Memory matters. Accountability matters. A record kept for those who were told to forget.
The tragedy of the modern clergy is not rampant malice, but a quiet, calculated compliance. It is the parish priest who has traded his prophetic voice for a modest pension, a steady stipend, and the security that comes with staying in the hierarchy’s good graces. There is nothing more dangerous to a community than a…
There are certain questions religious people learn to ask quietly. Sometimes so quietly that they’re afraid to even entertain them in their heads. What if I don’t believe all of this? What if the Church is wrong about something? What if I’m wrong? What if God isn’t real? And perhaps the most frightening one:…
Institutional gaslighting doesn’t begin in adulthood. Many people first encounter it as children. I understood that confusion long before I had the vocabulary to describe it. Some lessons about authority are learned far too young. When authority teaches you to question your own memory instead of its own behavior, those lessons can last a lifetime.…
A reader recently asked us about women throughout Catholic history and why they never achieved equality in the Church—or whether, perhaps, they have. This is a deep question to address and will likely ruffle some feathers. To honestly break this topic down, we have to look at several different topics within the Catholic Church.…
Long before social media invented the phrase ‘cancel culture,’ institutions had already perfected the practice. They didn’t need hashtags. They simply questioned your motives, isolated you from your community, whispered about your character, and waited for everyone else to keep their distance.
Maybe there’s an important distinction between not loving God and struggling with how to love God. Start with the fact that you’re asking the question — something in you still cares about the answer.
An NDA is just a modern indulgence. Only this time, instead of selling forgiveness to the public, the institution tried to purchase my silence.
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