Bathsheba Syndrome and Clericalism in the Catholic Church

In 1993, Ludwig and Longenecker, two experts in management studies have published an article analyzing the ethical failures of successful leaders. According to them, those successful managers could not cope with and respond to the ‘by-products of success’ and which led them to their moral transgressions. They listed four ‘by-products of success’ namely becoming complacent even to lose focus, having privileged access to information, enjoying increasingly unrestrained control of organizational resources and having the possibility to manipulate outcomes. Finding the similarities with King David’s story, they named this phenomenon as ‘Bathsheba Syndrome’. According to the Bible, David had a humble past, rapid rise to leadership, strong organizational skills, a charismatic personality and a high moral character. However, the same king had a dramatic fall from power due to a number of unethical decisions in his personal life. It is not true, if one considers that David abandoned his moral principles due to some occupational stress or competitive pressure, since his ethical violations happened just after some of his triumphant campaigns. According to Ludwig and Longenecker, David’s fall happened because he was not prepared to deal with the by-products of success and power. Authors found similar characteristics also among ‘modern day Davids’ of secular managers; who fall into moral transgressions after their initial success in the career.

Some of the leaders of the Catholic Church like Cardinal McCarrick seem to be under the infl uence of Bathsheba syndrome. Studies among the clerics who involved in child sexual abuses specifi cally mentioned similar characteristics of moral transgressions on these aggressors. Safeguarding researches state that many of the perpetrators had a successful priestly ministry and they had higher infl uence among the Church and social authorities even to manipulate the outcome of the investigations. It gradually created a system or social environment that could protect the abusers and thereby to continue the abusive incidents.

Clericalism -a policy of maintaining increasing power of religious hierarchy- is an urgent concern of Pope Francis, especially after the worldwide scandals about clergy-involved abuse cases. No Pope in the history has so frequently and so passionately condemned clericalism. According to Pope Francis, in post-clericalist Church there should not be sinful complicity between clergy and laity. Instead, both clergy and laity need to hold one another accountable.

Clericalism would create a favourable atmosphere for developing Bathsheba syndrome among authorities. A two-way approach is necessary to address possible victims of Bathsheba syndrome. Firstly, priestly formation has to focus also on moral formation, both in the initial and ongoing formation periods. That is, preparing seminarians to live the element of power related to their ministerial priesthood in a healthy and responsible manner has to be a priority in formation houses. Secondly, Catholic Church is in need of re-evaluating the system and the structure which directly or indirectly promotes clericalism and thereby to create an atmosphere which would favour developing Bathsheba syndrome among Church leaders.

Footnote: It is interesting to note that Ludwig and Longenecker named this moral transgression of King David as ‘Bathsheba Syndrome’, but not ‘David Syndrome’. It seems that the victim has been re-victimized by the authors of the article, and the perpetrator enjoys the privileged position of anonymity.

 – Fr.Jo Paul Kiriyanthan