Rites of Degradation

One of my favorite blogs, Miss Cellania, a while back posted a link to a very interesting article titled "Unmaking a Priest: The Rite of Degradation."

I was familiar with the term defrocking, which refers to the dismissal of a priest who has been found ... unpriestly. The official name for this process is "The Rite of Degradation," described by The Catholic Encyclopedia as "a canonical penalty by which an ecclesiastic is entirely and perpetually deprived of all office, benefice, dignity, and power conferred on him by ordination; and by a special ceremony is reduced to the state of a layman, losing the privileges of the clerical state and being given over to the secular arm." The Rite of Degradation is, in fact, a complex ritual designed to demonstrate that the priest being defrocked is being peeled like a canonical onion, visibly stripped of the layers of distinctive clothing that had marked him as a man of God.

Since I stopped going to church many years ago, I found the article to be of general rather than specifically religious interest, although it did remind me of the whole issue of ceremonies, rites, and rituals, which I find fascinating.

Religious rituals are probably the most common ones that we encounter on a daily basis, although there are many other sorts of ceremonies, some with religious overtones - such as last weekend's coronation ritual that formalized the rule of Britain's King Charles III. Military change-of-command ceremonies, weddings, presidential inaugurations, state visits, funerals, courtroom trials - all respond to a human need for stability and consistency in an unpredictable and chaotic world. Sex doesn't escape this need, either ... as the libertine Sir Stephen noted in the soft-core pornographic novel "Story of O," "I have a fondness for habits and ritual." And you may remember the old TV western series "Branded," which followed the adventures of a man unfairly (and in a graphic ceremony at the beginning of each episode) drummed out of the Army because of alleged cowardice.

But let's not talk about religion and sex and the Army for a moment ... let's talk about the unfortunate lack of a Rite of Degradation in the Constitution. 

As we go through the drawn-out agony of unpacking and - hopefully - punishing the crude venality and lawlessness of Der Furor and his administration, one wishes the founders had done better than establish  simple impeachment as the penalty for malfeasance in office. Article 1, Section 3, Clause 7 states that,

"Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law."

There's nothing about prison, drawing and quartering, exile, or the like. Of course, the Founders didn't want European-style royal punishments, so I guess that was to be expected. But it would have been nice if there'd been something more visible to underscore the seriousness of offenses against the public trust. We don't have presidential sashes to be stripped away, crowns to be removed from heads, or orbs and scepters to be ceremoniously broken, which rather limits the sort of satisfyingly ritualistic expulsion we can perform.

It would be nice if we had a Constitutionally-enshrined Rite of Degradation - a political ritual by which a President, Member of Congress, or appointed and confirmed federal official, is shown to be entirely and perpetually deprived of all office, benefits, dignity, and power conferred on them by election or appointment - that would not only remove malefactors from office, but graphically demonstrate the penalty for abusing the public trust. What form might that take?

A President or Vice President might be made to stand on the South Lawn of the White House while the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court uses a large hammer to smash a plaster replica of the appropriate seal of office before the Capitol Police escort them to the White House gates, usher them out, and close and lock the gates behind them.

Senators and Representatives might be made to stand in the well of their respective chamber while the judgement is read, after which their fellow members would all turn their backs before walking out, leaving the expellee alone in front of the C-SPAN cameras.

Justices of the Supreme Court could be forced to remove their robes on the front steps of the Supreme Court building, drop them to the ground, and walk across them as they leave the building for the last time.

Cabinet officers and other high-ranking appointees could be filmed carrying their personal effects out of their offices in cardboard boxes under police escort.

None of these will ever happen, of course, but it's nice to dream. Because, in my mind, there are few things worse than abuse of the public trust without consequence ... which is pretty much where we are today.

Have a good day. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo