Disturbing News

If you’ve been reading the newspapers or watching the news on TV these past days it’s hard to miss the reports concerning the Archdiocese of Boston and elsewhere. Cardinal Law, who heads that archdiocese, admits to moving a former priest from assignment to assignment, knowing that the priest had molested minors on many previous occasions. The priest has since been laicized (returned to the lay state) and is now serving a prison sentence.

The New York Times reports that “since January at least 55 priests in 17 dioceses have been removed, suspended, put on administrative leave or forced to resign or retire” as a result of credible accusations of pedophilia.

This is a terribly loathsome sickness that, tragically, goes far beyond the pedophile. The very nature of this condition is that the sexual predator devastates their lives at the very time when children are at their most vulnerable and need adult nurture and care.

Promulgated by Cardinal Bernardin in 1992, the Archdiocese of Chicago has extensive policies and procedures to deal with sexual misconduct of minors by clerics. (These policies and procedures were reprinted in the Catholic New World in its last issue.) Cardinal George has ordered a thorough review not only of the policies and procedures but of all the cases handled under them.

Cardinal George has described the sexual abuse of minors as conduct that is “disordered, criminal and deeply sinful.” At his direction, an article he wrote is reprinted in this bulletin.

Palm Sunday

The full title of this feast is Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. As is our custom at St. Julie, the TNT youth group enacts the proclamation of Matthew’s gospel, the passion of Christ.

As we reflect upon and consider the disturbing news of priests who prey on children, we do well to recall that it is just such grievous sins that nailed Christ to the cross. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: “. . . those who plunge themselves into disorders and crimes crucify the Son of God anew. . . and hold him up to contempt” (CCC 598).

As believers, as members of the Church, what can we do about this disturbing news? One thing we can do is precisely what we are doing this Sunday: meditate on the saving mystery of the cross. The suffering and death of God’s Son brought life to the whole world and moves our hearts to praise God’s glory. An instrument of evil, the cross, and an evil event, the execution of an innocent man, is turned by the power of God, to the good, to effect our salvation. Indeed, the power of the cross reveals God’s judgment on this world and the kingship of Christ crucified.

Beyond our meditation on the mystery of the cross, we can pray. We pray for all victims of physical and sexual abuse and violence, especially children. In our prayer, we raise them up to the healing presence of Christ and ask that God’s grace guide them to seek the help they need to begin recovery.

We also pray for the victimizers. This is much more challenging. But we need to do this so that they realize the seriousness of their sin and seek out the help they need to address both their psychological condition and their sinfulness.

We also pray for the wider Church and for all those whose old wounds are reopened by this most recent reporting.

Finally, in addition to meditating on the cross and praying, we must also be actively attentive to our children. While it’s easy to focus on clergy as a kind of “celebrity” abuse of minors, the percentage of clergy who are involved in this behavior is no greater than the percentage of the general population who perpetrate this abuse.

In other words, abuse of minors can happen by any adult—even by family members. It’s not the “dirty old man” in the trench coat we have to be worried about—most kids won’t go near such a person. So, we need to make sure that our children are comfortable talking about this phenomenon. At the same time, we need to be comfortable listening to them. When necessary, we then need to report cases of abuse to the proper authorities.

Face the Cross—Face Evil in our Midst

Did anyone catch the news item buried way inside both the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times on Monday? An Archbishop of Columbia was murdered for speaking out against the drug traffic and its money used to fund political campaigns in that country. Do you think the papers are going to put that story on the front page? Of course not. Sex scandals are more juicy. Martyrdom is not.

No matter how much we try to avoid the cross and every form of inhumanity and evil in the world today, sinfulness abounds. But we are not caught in a hopeless situation. For where sin abounds, God’s grace abounds even more.

Sacred scripture records for us the reactions of various followers of Christ who were faced with their complicity in the cross. Judas gave up, he hanged himself. At first Peter runs away, but later he allows God to heal him. John stands at the very foot of the cross and is entrusted with the mother of Jesus.

In the face of evil in the world, we must not give up, or run away from it. We’ve got to stand at the foot of the cross and be entrusted with responsibility for one another by and in Christ.

FR. Steve Lanza

Reprinted from The Pastor's Page
St Julie Billiart Church, Tinley Park, Illinois
March 24, 2002