Carl Jung argued that within us, metaphorically speaking, there is something called the Shadow. It is that part of us which contains emotions, memories, old emotional scars that we would prefer not to have to experience.
When something in our shadow gets triggered, it literally hijacks the mind and takes over and we find ourselves in negative emotional cycles or do things we will probably regret later. This continues until we gain more control over it by paying attention to what it is we wish to avoid. The moment the light of awareness shines within, some of the compelling energy of the shadow is diminished. It's still there and will continue to be triggered but now we are in a better position to regain our "right" state of mind and not get caught up in negativity.
Since institutions are comprised of individuals, it would make sense there is also an institutional shadow. A collective shadow that contains memories of past events and unresolved emotional deficits. The shadow cannot be contained forever. At some point it will burst through into consciousness and reveal itself.
Such is the fate the Catholic Church is now facing. The church is supposed to represent and model the highest ideals and aspirations of spiritual life. Spiritual life to lead us into heaven. Yet now, sadly, we are seeing just how earthly parts of the church are. In fact, so earthly in such a way as to completely contradict the persona the church shows the world.
One of the problems with practicing spiritual values is what happens when they are practiced only in a conceptual, intellectual kind of manner. In this case, the heart is not really integrating spiritual values. They are not truely felt. It is like saying you believe in love but if you have never felt it, then you really don't know what it's like.
When spiritual values are not "felt" the mind is more vulnerable to shadow impulses. The need to dominate and abuse, to take advantage of another can reflect addiction to sex, or unresolved emotional wounds of childhood abuse or both.
The years of denial, of minimizing what happened represents the cognitive dissonance that occurs when something sacred meets something so profane. As an institution it is hard for the church to accept that it too is subject to very human traits within its ranks, darker traits. No one is exempt anywhere.
The world waits and expects an apology, a making amends of past deeds and the current pope and previous one did take steps in that direction. The rest of the drama is yet to be staged. How far will it go? Will the church yield and self disclose or will it follow the path it has previously gone? We shall see.
