Unaccountable and untrustworthy

August 31, 2026

John’s article raises the question addressed by the statement of Thomas Paine. “A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.” The Catholic Church in vast stretches of its existence has been answerable only to itself. That is 2000 years of self regulation. Any human institution, and the Church is unquestionably a human institution, that has no accountability to anyone but itself must, on the basis of overwhelming historical evidence, develop a vast capacity for impunity of action and distaste for any authority but itself. That has been the fate of any long lived human institution in history and undoubtedly applies to the Church itself. Reflecting that is the vastly decreasing numbers of “practicing” Catholics in the original base of Catholicism, the West. That trend is almost certain to continue as younger generations become increasingly intolerant of the gap between teaching and practice.