RBWords - Volume 31 - Number 2: February 2018
Something to Think About
r.b.words – volume 31 – number 2 – February 2019
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT –
The “summit meeting” of the bishops and cardinals called by Pope Francis to deal with the worldwide scandal of clergy sex abuse is now over and the pope is demanding concrete actions to counter any instance of this terrible crime in all the local dioceses of the church. What some geographic regions and groups may have thought was a problem in the U.S.A. and other English-speaking areas has been shown to be worldwide in scope and needs a comprehensive response, not only on the canonical/legal level but especially on the pastoral level. The victims must be considered first, any perpetrators must be removed from service, and the whole Body of Christ educated to recognize and counter any situations that could give rise to abuse. Furthermore, sexual abuse goes beyond the terrible wound of the children to other deep wounds in adults.
What is different about this summit is that it dealt with the leadership in the church. In the USA, the Dallas Charter of 2002 dealt with clergy below the rank of bishop and appeared to exempt bishops from misconduct. Subsequent events have shown that this was a grave mistake – the example of ex-Cardinal McCarrick being the most prominent example in this country. Since the Dallas Charter, I know that I have been required to take part in continuing training in this area in order to have permission to act as a priest in my religious order. A “letter of suitability” from our provincial office has to be sent to every diocese where I will be preaching and ministering before I can go there.
Equally important is the education of all the baptized to prevent sexual abuse of any kind, but especially of children, by anyone in service to the People of God. I hope that the summit will yield very specific actions that must be done and done SOON! The fact that this kind of abuse occurs in other contexts by persons of authority – coaches, teachers, doctors, employers – means that we who are church must work all the harder to provide good example. IT’S SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
It Has Been Said
IT HAS BEEN SAID:
“But the greatest blessing you have brought to me is of another order. In gaining my friendship by your charity (which I have never met anything to equal), you have provided me with a source of the most compelling and pure inspiration that is to be found among human things. For nothing among human things has such power to keep our gaze fixed every more intensely upon God, than friendship for the friends of God.”
From a letter of Simone Weil to her spiritual director, Fr. Perrin, OP, in WAITING FOR GOD