We All Knew

And speaking of lying and reputations...

Cardinal George spoke to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops at their recent meeting and spoke directly about how they have a tarnished reputation and they too, have a need to reconcile with the Catholic faithful and continue to lead us as Bishops into the next decade.

If there is a loosening of our relationship between ourselves and those whom Christ has given us to govern in love, it is for us to reach out and re-establish connections necessary for all to remain in communion....

Our pastoral concern for ecclesial unity does not diminish our awareness of our own mistakes and sins. There are some who would like to trap the Church in historical events of ages long past and there are others who would keep the bishops permanently imprisoned in the clerical sexual abuse scandal of recent years. The proper response to a crisis of governance, however, is not no governance but effective governance.

Loss of trust, we know, weakens relationships and will continue to affect our ministry, even though clerical ranks have been purged of priests and bishops known to have abused children and the entire Church has taken unprecedented means to protect children and to reach out to vicitms.

In any case, the sinfulness of churchmen can not be allowed to discredit the truth of Catholic teaching or to destroy the relationships that create ecclesial communion.

Amen! We are one church! All of us together in the muck and dregs that we call sin. While we are often all-too-quick to point fingers at the Bishops when it comes to sexual abuse of children, one of the big responses that I heard throughout the abuse scandal was not one of surprise, but one of sadness for a lack of response from those with power.

But if the fact that little and not so little children were abused by clerics were not surprising to us as laity, then why did we not take more rigorous action? We too bear some responsibility here and I'll point the finger back at my own family and myself to start. I hesitate to share this information but the timing is right.

As a teen-ager I was always around the church as an altar boy. A priest, (who I won't name here, and he has indeed been removed from ministry) took an interest in me and in some of my friends. He was friendly and had a humorous tone at all times. I enjoyed his company when we spent time together in the sacristy before mass. I remember at a parish party when he had a few glasses of wine and he put his arm around me and nuzzled his head on my shoulder. I was about 15.

It was then that I got the heeby-jeebies. And more important, so did my mother. It seemed a bit familiar and intimate. While I hug most of my friends and colleagues that I know well, even today, this seemed to be a bit odd.

Fast-forward a number of years, and my mother told me a hair raising story. At the height of the scandal I got word that this priest had been accused and found guilty of molesting many young boys. I called Mom and told her the sad news. She replied:

"Did I ever tell you that "Fr. X" called me and told me that he thought you had a vocation and that he wanted to take you on a trip to Rome? He thought that would have solidified your call to the priesthood."

Yikes! God bless a mother's intuition in not allowing her young boy to go off to Rome with someone she found suspect.

And while she protected me, perhaps she needed to do a bit more? She didn't call a pastor or a bishop (and reports mentioned that his religious order ordained him even though they knew of a past history of abuse). She didn't report the suspicion that he might very well be a predator. Perhaps she had no proof and perhaps it may have fallen on deaf ears, and while uncomfortable, perhaps something more should have been said?

Who knows? Hindsight is always 20/20. But let's face it: We knew Mark McGwire was juicing and we didn't want to let ourselves see that. We knew that some priests were a bit odd and inappropriate with children and perhaps not well sexually integrated, even though they'd say openly that they were straight celibate men. We knew. We all just didn't want to say that we did and were taken aback when some of the bravest amongst us did in fact, make accusations.

And therein we have our conundrum. It is us that want to have heroes, people of repute that we look up to and often, our heroes fall short of the reputations that we'd like them to have. Be they Presidents or Popes, Bishops or Batters, Prophets or Parents, our heroes often fall from grace.

Indeed it is up to us to not merely point fingers but also to help mend fences. How do we point ourselves in new and healthier directions to bring the church out of disrepute and into a place where people see us as honorable and justice-seekers? I think that's where Cardinal George is hoping to lead the Bishops.

And it is my prayer that they lead all of us to embrace that same challenege.

What a Surprise- VOTF..going broke

Voice of the Faithful, the reform and advocacy group that emerged in 2002 in the wake of the clerical sex abuse revelations in Boston, has announced that it may be forced to close its national offices unless it receives a quick infusion of cash.
In an e-mail sent to members and media representatives, the organization said it was “at the crossroads of financial survival” and is looking to raise at least $60,000 by the end of July in order to continue operations.

You want to know why their funds are low...?

No people in their 20s and 30s belong to voice of the faithful. It is a baby boomer organization at best.

Why is that the case? You would think that they would find the cause of supporting those who have been abused laudable, no?

Well...

I would offer a few thoughts here.

1) Most of the younger adults I know don't really have a problem with the church, rather the church isn't even on their radar. It's simply not part of their life and when they see all the infighting that happens with their older compatriots--many of whom are their own parents, the church looks even less attractive, much less an organization that calls the irrelevant organization to task.

2) Younger people simply don't have the time for an organization like this. As an example, a young man I know was asked by his baby boomer mother why he wasn't more of a voice for change in his own parish? His response was simple:
"Mom, I just don't have that kind of time. It's just not worth it to me. I'm going to do all this work and NOTHING is going to happen because, pastor, bishop, etc is going to do what he wants anyway."

Can't say I disagree with him.

3) Lastly, I think there's clearly a perceived agenda with Voice of the Faithful that goes beyond the scope of the sex abuse scandal and into other issues like women's ordination, optional celibacy, and a more democratic decision making process in different areas. Younger people tend to see more value in religious organizations that actually do good work in the areas of social justice, global change and even prayer and sacraments--the so called passing along of the tradition. When they see infighting that is the clear death knell and simply is translated as a waste of energy.

I wish VOTF well. I know that these people are faithful Catholics for the most part who see the challenge of today in developing priests that we can depend on as trusted sources and not suspects. It's an area that they have little control over however and the fact that many Bishops have outsided them from their diocesan property doesn't help either.

But their lack of success, financially at least is not a surprise to me. Everyone is struggling and VOTF is not just one more struggling religious organization. They are one more organization that seems to raise the level of suspicion past the point of something to which young people can see a value to contributing their time.

Ireland's Holocaust?

The sex abuse scandal in Ireland is starting to be termed a "holocaust" which in this humble blogger's opinion is a bit much and a bit condescending to our Jewish brothers and sisters. But nonetheless, it is a huge tragedy and has seriously damaged and abused far too many children. The Pope weighed in with Ireland's two senior clerics who reported his thoghts.

From Independent.ie

POPE Benedict was "visibly upset" by horrific revelations of sexual, physical and emotional torture of children uncovered by the Ryan inquiry, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin revealed yesterday.

The Pontiff also told Ireland's two most senior Catholic clerics that the victims of abuse must get justice.

In a Vatican meeting with Cardinal Brady and Archbishop Martin last Friday, Pope Benedict reiterated his call for the Church hierarchy to make amends to the thousands of children who suffered at the hands of abusive priests, brothers and nuns.

"He (the Pope) was very visibly upset to hear of some of the things told in the Ryan report and how the children had suffered from the very opposite of the expression of a love of God," the Archbishop said.

a h/t to Whispers.

Ireland's Sex Abuse Scandal Will Make Boston Look Like a Day at the Beach

From the fine folks at Associated Press and a h/t to Deacon Greg

DUBLIN (AP) — A commission report into the abuse of thousands of Irish children in Roman Catholic institutions is published Wednesday after a nine-year investigation repeatedly delayed by church lawsuits, missing documentation and alleged government obstruction.
The Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse will release a 2,575-page report in an attempt at a comprehensive portrait of sexual, physical and emotional damage inflicted on children consigned to the country's defunct network of reformatories, workhouses, orphanages and other church-run institutions from the 1930s to 1990s.
Most of the children were ordered into church care because of school truancy, petty crimes or because they were the offspring of unwed mothers. Many faced regimes of terror involving ritual beatings and intimidation. But until the investigation came along, thousands of survivors said they had nowhere safe to tell their stories — because swathes of Irish Catholic society sought to label them liars.
Some of those victims say they feel hopeful now that vindication might be at hand.

Read more here, but this indeed is shameful. One of the things that seems to be at work here is the laity's complicit behavior with clergy in creating a culture of demonization of these children who were placed into the system and then essentially told that they were "less than." Talk about a denial of Catholic principles.

As a son of Ireland, I'm pretty ashamed to be Irish today. I hope that we can at least look upon this report as an opportunity to own our mistakes and learn from the hate-filled practices aimed at those who have made children objects for sexual pleasure and to break down their self worth to make that possibility easier.

Shameful, Shameful, Shameful.

Pittsburgh:Healing the Wounds of Sexual Abuse

Rocco and Deacon Greg has the moving news

The service began on a somber note. In place of the usual organ music and hymns of welcome, Bishop Zubik and his alter servers entered in silence, the only noises the sound of their footsteps and the rustling and muffled coughing of those in attendance.

Reaching the altar, Bishop Zubik prostrated himself before it, lying flat and motionless on the cool marble floor for a full two minutes. He stood up, and soon offered the opening prayer in a ringing voice that filled the huge, vaulted cathedral.

"Where sin has divided and scattered, may your love make one again," he said, addressing God. "Where sin has brought weakness and hurt, may your power heal and strengthen. Where sin has brought death, may your spirit raise to life."

But even as he celebrated God's mercy, he acknowledged that the church is made up of men and women who are very human and at times, very sinful.

It was clear from the hundreds of people attending the service that their sins had caused harm, he said....

He would do whatever he could, he told his listeners -- many of whom were middle-aged men and elderly women -- to restore their trust in the church "so that as a church, we can live our best, love our best, do our best, give our best."

Bishop Zubik then lit six candles of remembrance and apology to the victims -- children, teenagers and adults -- of abuse by representatives of the church.

"We acknowledge their deep wounds," said a priest, after Bishop Zubik lit the third candle. "We acknowledge the betrayal of a most sacred trust. We acknowledge their courage in speaking the truth. We affirm their dignity as people who are seeking truth and accountability, compassion and redress for the wrong that has been done to them. We support their healing. We offer our prayer for their journey toward wholeness."

Sounds like Bishop Zubik is off to a great start in one of America's great cities.

Confession Compilations

Dr. Christine Whelan offers some thoughts on a priest who compiled the sins that people confessed and noticed a difference between what men and women confess. Turns out that women confess pride most often and men confess lust (no surprise there!).

But Dr. Whelan smartly points out a good point:

Are women actually more “proud” than men? So women confess pride more often. Might it just be that women are more likely to think that their feelings of pride are sinful, whereas men think their feelings of pride are well-deserved and normal? My previous research has shown that women often downplay their accomplishments, because they feel culturally compelled to present themselves as demure and “sweet” — not strong and successful. This kind of socialization effect will carry over from the classroom to the bar to the confessional; it’s the way we are taught to operate. So a woman who gets an “A” on a test and thinks she’s da bomb for doing so might feel a twinge of guilt about her excitement, whereas a man would not.

Are men confessing to lust because they are conditioned to do so? I give talks to college students about dating and marriage, and you might be surprised that in the Q&A sessions, it’s the guys who do most of the talking. The men are quick to talk about their desire for a late night booty call to be answered in the affirmative, and what a “hook-up” really means in their circle of friends. After one such talk, it occurred to me that many think they are cool, attractive and more masculine for “confessing” those thoughts. I’m not saying that men are more lustful than women; I wonder how much our social conditioning impacts what we think to confess.

An excellent point by the good doctor. But we should add another piece to this.

Were the specific instances mentioned in these confessions actually sins? The correct answer here is that we don't know.

We should notice that the data indictates that men and women confess these sins but it does not say whether these admissions are actually sins. Some women may in fact confess pride but may simply be downplaying their accomplishments. A good confessor would be able to point out that her behavior in this instance may indeed not be sinful at all.

So while women may confess pride–they indeed may not be committing that sin at all. The same with male confessions of lust which may just be natural feelings of attraction at time that someone interprets too scrupulously. Hopefully, the priests doing the compiling (which is dangerously close to breaking the seal of confession in my opinion) were able to tell the difference.

For more on how to go to confession--especially if it's been awhile...check out our confession videos:

Virtus Training

So I had to go and take Virtus training--for those who don't know what this is it's a training session on protecting children from predators. It's a mandate now in just about all dioceses--although some use other formats.

I wasn't looking forward to it but actually found it well worth spending a few hours of my life on this. We watched two videos which spurred on discussion. Interestingly they had both victims discussing their horrifying experiences on camera and shockingly two abusers were in the video talking about the ways they'd get children to trust them as well as parents. One guy owned a roller rink and another worked at a summer camp. Bone chilling stuff.

The one that stayed with me was a young woman who was having trouble in her English class, so the teacher offered her extra help and then started fondling her. She didn't think her parents would believe her because she was a poor student--so they'd believe her teacher more than they'd believe her.

Folks, I don't have kids, but I do have nieces and a nephew who I care for very much. I can only imagine the horror a parent would feel when this happens to their child. Make sure your children know that they can come to you with any issue and that you'll always believe them. Only 5% of abuse cases brought forth by a child are ever found to be false accusations! Kids might make up things from time to time but they don't make up stuff like this.

Today let's pray for all victims of abuse. I'd like to apologize to victims on behalf of a church that I belong to that obviously didn't handle these abuse cases well. I hope that their pain will be lessened by the work that is being done today to protect all of God's children. I pray too for those who have abused children. The one link we know is that those who have been abusing children were themselves abused as a child. I can only imagine the hell that they have been through and the lack of engagement with that pain has now led them to abuse others. May God have mercy on them, heal them of their pain and allow them to be free from all that traps them in this vicious cycle of abuse.

May God, above all help us protect out children. Amen

Sad Time for Legionaries of Christ

The Legionaries of Christ are having themselves a week they'd soon like to forget. It has long been rumored that their founder Marcial Maciel was in fact accused of several accusations including the following with a hat tip to the Life after Regnum Christi blog:

* Maciel fathered a child who is now in her early 20's;

* Maciel offered some money illicitly to his own family;

* The current head, Alvaro Corcuera, entertaining his own suspicions, demanded that the case be reopened several years ago;

* Maciel had numerous accusations against him for paedophilia, beginning with his earliest recruits (none of whome were ever ordained);

* Early companions of Maciel recount several affairs with women with details reaching back to the 1950's;

* Maciel has been accused of extensive drug problems;


* The rank and file were recruited for their connexions, money, and sincere zeal for souls.

In short, oh brother. Amy Welborn who is always fair in her judgments of such matters has an excellent take on most of the proceedings.

Serious problems have surfaced in relationship to the group, both present and past. Financial questions. Questions of formation. There is much, much to be concerned about, concerns voiced by many observers and several bishops, most notably Archbishop O’Brien of Baltimore, who stepped in and requested complete transparency from LC and RC regarding their apostolates in his see last year.

We should note, in retelling this story, that the charges against Maciel apparently had no traction at the Vatican, for whatever reason, until Benedict XVI became Pope. In May, 2006, Maciel was ordered to retire to a life of prayer and penance. Here is the text of the communique, which was intermidably parsed here and other places, but whose meaning is hard to escape.

There are, indeed, good people associated with LC and RC - many of us reading this blog know them. They need our prayers and great strength - the strength that any and all of us need when we have been deceived in the name of God.

That said, the book on this affair will be long and complex. Torturous, in fact. There will undoubtedly need to be several volumes.

The news coming out now is sketchy and incomplete. The word is that the leadership is admitting that Maciel fathered at least one child, perhaps two. Some sources are saying that the leadership is admitting the veracity of the previous accusations, as well, but that is fuzzy to me at this point. Over the past few days, various parties and groups have been informed of this. After the question of the accusations against Maciel himself, the huge question waiting to be unraveled, but extraordinarily difficult to do because of the group’s obsession with secrecy, is the awareness of the LC leadership of all of this over the years.

The third question is that if the leadership is admitting the truth of the bulk of the many accusations against Maciel…will the victims, long vilified by the movement and its defenders…receive an apology?

Indeed that is my question as well. If the founder is guilty --and it looks like he obviously is--then what does that mean not only to his legacy but to the future of the order? As Welborn also notes above this is a blight on the Papacy of John Paul II as well as it seems that he or at the very least, his senior aides, didn't believe that the accusations could be true.

Much was made of the Legion's "secrecy pledge" that they required of faculty at Atlanta's Donnellan School which led to many staff firings and resignations. Coercion and outright hostility towards perceived enemies seemingly has followed the Legion wherever it goes.

However, Welborn makes a good point when she says:

What is the appeal of Regnum Christi and its apostolates in the United States? The appeal may be negative in some ways, but those I have met who have been drawn to it are thirsting for solid faith content. They know that their children live in a challenging world and have no confidence in what passes for catechesis in the parish or even in many Catholic schools to equip them for that world. They do not see these programs or liturgies seriously oriented toward bringing those participating into a deep, committed relationship with Christ.

So something substantive appears…it appeals.

But this problem is also systemic in its very nature. We leave religious education in most parishes in the hands of willing volunteeers, without much (or any) proper training or assurance that they know even the basic tenets of the faith at all. (My 5th grade CCD teacher didn't know how to look up a bible verse!). We also give parents little training in passing along the faith and with Generation X parents we need to give them a remedial Catechetical course so that they have some sense of a tradition to pass on because in many cases nothing was transmitted to them in terms of faith information at all.

But what of the more traditional orders who teach the basics well but perhaps act somewhat judgmental towards others, cover up their own sins to make them seem above the fray and often simply seem to be unstable or unhealthy? And what of the other extreme? Where almost nothing in tradition is transmitted, everyone's sins are often minimized and while care for the poor is often espoused as a central element of the faith not much connection to Jesus, much less Catholicism is often coupled to it?

It strikes me that a more centrist view is needed. Community AND contemplation, a vertical relationship between us and God needs to be joined with a horizontal relationship with the community. Traditional devotions like the rosary and eucharistic adoration need to be coupled with discernment so as to ask greater questions:

What do these devotions empower you to do? What does your knowledge of Catholic tradition mean for you in your everyday life? How will you live now knowing Jesus more intimately?

It seems to me that this is what the good men and women who have dedicated their lives in religious profession do well. They come from all walks of life. There are great members of the Legion but also great Jesuits, Paulists and Redemptorists. Great women exist in Opus Dei who bring others to Christ and great women in the Sisters of St. Joseph. Diocesan officials who have healed marriages and educated children well and other officials who have let marriages fail and children go uneducated too. All have different approaches to be sure, but in all these various "faith journeys" individuals have cared for souls in great ways.

Unfortunately, we have the best and worst in all our traditions--just like everywhere else. It is up to our own judgments to seek the best of our tradition and to associate ourselves with what seems healthy, true and Christ-like.

We've all had good and bad math teachers, co-workers and Presidents. Why should our religion be any different.

Prayers today for all good religious educators, The Legion and the victims of abuse who have suffered for so long. And for all of us who try to bring people closer to God.