Mother Church, the sacrament of Jesus Christ on earth bears the wounds inflected on her by her clergy.
I cannot say whether this story, “For Roger Mahoney, clergy abuse cases were a threat to agenda,” published by the LA Times is without bias, but if it is objective in reporting the facts, then we have even more opportunities to pray, and to offer sacrifice for the offenses of the Catholic clergy; our education on the matter is not over, and we ought not to be complacent.
That the reporters and not Church hierarchy has written about this subject is indeed amazing. Say what you will about the media, the Church does owe a debt of gratitude for shedding light on a dark point of our history. I don’t think it is an exaggeration to say that if the media didn’t write about the abuse and the attitude of the bishops toward the Church –a la what you see in Cardinal Mahoney– little change would have happened. It must be recognized with a clear voice that the Catholic Church is charting a path to resolution and healing, a path that many secular institutions have yet to walk.
Mercy is required –Jesus the Good Shepherd teaches us this. Pope Francis is the current face of God’s tenderness for the victims and victimizers. Mercy for the victims, law enforcement officials, healthcare professionals, the laity of who give lives to the following Jesus as faithful members of the Church, and the clergy.
In 2007, the then Prefect of the Congregation of the Clergy, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, wrote a letter to the bishops of the world asking for a spiritual work to aid concrete actions in assisting those affected by clergy sex abuse. To date, few cenacles of prayer have been established. Where I live, Cardinal Hummes’ letter is a dead letter, seemingly completely ignored by the bishops (at least in the USA). So that you know what the cardinal is looking for,
We are asking, therefore, all diocesan Ordinaries who perceive in a special way the specificity and irreplaceability of the ordained ministry in the life of the Church, together with the urgency of a common action in favour of the ministerial priesthood, to become an active part and promote – in the different portions of the People of God entrusted to them – , veritable cenacles in which clerics, religious and lay people – united among themselves in the spirit of true communion – devote themselves to prayer, in the form of continual eucharistic adoration, also in the spirit of genuine and real reparation and purification.
May the horrible history of Roger Mahoney be an invitation for all of to make conversion a priority.