Politics & Power Quote by Andrew Greeley

A priest telling priest organizations they have an "image problem" is a deliberately unpious move: it drags the clergy out of sacramental mystery and into the hard light of public relations. Greeley’s phrasing is bureaucratic on purpose. "Organizations", "membership", "undertake programs" sound like minutes from a committee meeting, not a homily. That tonal choice is the point. He’s signaling that whatever spiritual authority the priesthood claims, it still lives inside a modern legitimacy economy where trust is earned, measured, and easily lost.

The intent is corrective and tactical: stop treating reputation as a superficial concern and start treating it as pastoral triage. "Around the country, both local and national" widens the indictment. This isn’t about a few bad actors or one unlucky diocese; it’s systemic. "Serious" does double duty: it amplifies urgency while implying that previous responses have been cosmetic, defensive, or in denial.

The subtext is sharper: the clergy’s credibility has been compromised enough that the usual tools (sermons, internal discipline, appeals to tradition) are no longer sufficient. By framing it as an "image" problem, Greeley is also poking at the Church’s temptation to manage perception instead of confronting causes. The line challenges priest groups to choose: become institutions that can admit failure in public, or keep acting like the collar itself is a shield.

Contextually, Greeley belongs to that late-20th-century American Catholic moment when deference was crumbling and the Church was being forced to speak in the language of accountability. He’s not asking for better branding; he’s warning that without visible reform, the priesthood risks becoming a role the public sees only through scandal, secrecy, and power.