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The editorial of the Jesuit USA magazine "America"
Posted on
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gulf-goans/message/29262
The Millstone | The Editors | April 12, 2010
The shame associated with the abuse of children by
Catholic priests is borne these days by all Catholics
forced to explain to incredulous friends and acquaintances
how this could have happened, how it could have gone on so
long, how it could have been allowed to become so
extensive - questions that still require a proper answer.
Like a millstone around our necks, the scandal, year after
endless year, drags us all down with it. How the church as
the people of God respond to it should not be a question
of loyalty to the pope nor even more demands for his
resignation; it is a matter of restoring the church’s
integrity as an institution and renewing the life of
holiness for its members. It is a matter of corporate
conversion.
It is clear we are no longer dealing with an “American
problem.” We never were. This is a global crisis that
requires a church-wide strategy. The whole church - from
parish to diocese to Roman Curia - needs to respond with the
resources and the urgency it demands. Cardinal Walter
Kasper, head of the Pontifical Council for Promoting
Christian Unity, argues it is time for a thorough
housecleaning. “We need a culture of alertness and
bravery,” he said, “to do the housework,” and we must
begin with caring for the victims.
Seek out the victims. Instead of waiting for victims of
abuse to step forward, we should seek them out. During his
2008 visit to the United States, Pope Benedict XVI met
with victims of abuse; he has promised to do the same in
Ireland. These meetings need to be replicated by bishops
and pastors wherever abuse is alleged. Though he seems to
have had a tragic blind spot with respect to sexual abuse
by the clergy, the late Pope John Paul II set a precedent
for a ministry of apology and forgiveness for the offenses
of church people. Small- and large-scale apologies need to
be offered and forgiveness requested by bishops in
dioceses where abuse has been committed. Public repentance
needs to be demonstrated, as Cardinal Sean O’Malley showed
with a penance service early in his healing ministry in
Boston. Finally, funds should be established for the
psychological healing and social support, where needed, of
victims aimed at making them as whole as possible. Acts of
piety and even reparation will be insufficient, however,
without church reform as the manifestation of
institutional conversion. Deeper institutional conversion
will entail transparency, accountability and lay
empowerment.
Come clean. “There is nothing that is concealed that will
not be revealed,” Jesus said. The image of the church has
been so profoundly diminished that there is now no point
in forestalling investigations or attempting to stamp out
brushfires of scandal. Innocent lives have been
desecrated. At this point Catholics and others feel that
desecration is drawn out wherever the church’s response is
perceived to be halting and defensive. But the distressing
truth is that surely more revelations await in countries
where the poor have few resources or where legal systems
are inadequate to respond to such crimes. Church offices
should reveal all they know about the breadth and depth of
this crisis. As in all organizational recoveries,
transparency is necessary.
Be accountable. There are the sins of the clerics to
contend with, but there is also the sin of clericalism
that helped feed this crisis through silence and denial.
Many bishops have persisted in their refusal to accept
accountability for failure in supervision of priest
personnel.
A handful of bishops have resigned, and in his letter to
the church in Ireland Pope Benedict admitted the failures
of the hierarchy in perpetuating the scandal. Members of
the hierarchy may continue to find enemies in the media,
and the media is not without fault, but for the most part
the complicity of superiors in these crimes remains to be
acknowledged. For genuine conversion in this matter, a
searching examination of conscience over the sins of the
institution will be needed.
Empower the laity. Lay participation in church governance
is a conciliar value more honored in the breach than in
the practice. That is no longer acceptable. The faithful
must insist that parish and diocesan pastoral councils be
activated and that they be given greater authority in
canon law. Positions of real responsibility also need to
be assigned to lay people and women religious for
decision-making roles in church government. Humility
should be a virtue for all to embrace just now, but
especially for church leaders in seeking the guidance of
the faithful. Whether what emerges in the future is a more
humble but institutionally stronger church or a community
in decline may be decided by the actions the church takes
in the coming weeks and months to renew the spirit and
structures of its own governance. For there is a
conversion for institutions as well as for individuals,
and it is often even harder to embrace. |
