\nof Pope Benedict XVI. Communion and Liberation<\/a> is encouraging people to attend
\nMass, pray a Rosary, or attend Eucharistic Adoration on that day to pray for
\nthe Holy Father, in thanksgiving for his witness to Christ.<\/p>\n
The following
\nletter is from Father Julián Carrón, the President of Communion and Liberation,
\nsent to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica<\/i> (April 4, 2010).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Let Us Return,
\nWounded, to Christ<\/b><\/p>\n
Father Julián Carrón<\/p>\n
None of us has ever been as dismayed This If this is the case, then the most burning question, which no one can This is why even those who It Benedict XVI’s recognition of So how did the Pope save this Calling on Christ is not a way to seek a hiding This is the challenge facing all of us who are <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This coming Monday is the fifth anniversary of the election of Pope Benedict XVI. Communion and Liberation is encouraging people to attend Mass, pray a Rosary, or attend Eucharistic Adoration on that day to pray for the Holy Father, in thanksgiving for his witness to Christ. The following letter is from Father Julián Carrón, the … Continue reading Recognizing what Pope Benedict has done for the Church … Julián Carrón<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,7],"tags":[1755,1715,1872,32081],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25494"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25494\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n
\nas we are in front of the heart-wrenching story of child abuse. Our dismay
\narises from our inability to respond to the demand for justice which springs
\nfrom the bottom of our hearts.+The request to assume responsibility, the
\nacknowledgement of the evil committed, the reprimand for the mistakes made in
\nthe handling of the affair – all of this seems to us to be totally inadequate
\nas we face this sea of evil. Nothing seems to be enough. And so we can
\nunderstand the frustrated reactions that have been coming forth at this time.<\/p>\n
\nhas all served the purpose of making us stand face to face with our demand for
\njustice, acknowledging that it is limitless, bottomless – as deep as the wound
\nitself. Since it is infinite, it can never be satisfied. So the
\ndissatisfaction, impatience and even the disillusionment of the victims are
\nunderstandable, even after all the injuries and mistakes have been admitted:
\nnothing can satisfy their thirst for justice. It’s like entering into an
\nendless struggle. From this point of view, the ones who committed the abuse are
\nparadoxically facing a challenge similar to that of the victims: nothing can
\nrepair the damage that has been done. This in no way means that their
\nresponsibility can be lifted, and much less the verdict that justice may impose
\nupon them; it would not be enough even if they were to serve the maximum
\nsentence.<\/p>\n
\nescape, is as simple as it is unavoidable: “Quid animo satis?” What can satisfy
\nour thirst for justice? This is where we begin to feel all our powerlessness,
\nso powerfully expressed in Ibsen’s Brand: “Answer me, God, in the jaws of
\ndeath: Is there no salvation for the Will of Man? No small measure of
\nsalvation?” In other words, cannot the whole force of human will succeed in
\nbringing about the justice that we so long for?<\/p>\n
\ndemand it most, those who are most insistent in calling for justice, will not
\nbe loyal to the depth of their nature with its demand for justice if they do
\nnot face this incapacity that they share with all men. Were we not to face it,
\nwe would fall prey to an even crueler injustice, to a veritable assassination
\nof our humanity, because in order to keep on crying out for the justice that we
\nformulate according to our own measurement, we have to silence the voice of our
\nhearts, thus forgetting the victims and abandoning them in their struggle.<\/p>\n
\nis the Pope who, paradoxically, in his disarming boldness, has not fallen prey
\nto reducing justice to any sort of human measure. To begin with, he admitted without
\nhesitation the gravity of the evil committed by priests and religious, urged
\nthem to accept their responsibility for it, and condemned the way certain
\nbishops in their fear of scandal have handled the affair, expressing his deep
\ndismay over what had happened and taking steps to ensure that it not happen
\nagain. But then, he expressed his full awareness that this is not enough to
\nrespond to the demand that there be justice for the harm inflicted: “I know
\nthat nothing can undo the wrong you have endured. Your trust has been betrayed
\nand your dignity has been violated.” Likewise, even if the perpetrators serve
\ntheir sentences, repent, and do penance, it will never be enough to repair the
\ndamage they did to the victims and to themselves.<\/p>\n
\nthe true nature of our need, of our struggle, is the only way to save our full
\ndemand for justice; it is the only way to take it seriously, to take it fully
\ninto consideration. “The demand for justice is a need that is proper to man,
\nproper to a person. Without the possibility of something beyond, of an answer
\nthat lies beyond the existential modalities that we can experience, justice is
\nimpossible… If the hypothesis of a ‘beyond’ were eliminated, that demand would
\nbe unnaturally suffocated” (Father Giussani).<\/p>\n
\ndemand? By calling on the only one who can save it, someone who makes the
\nbeyond present in the here and now, namely, Christ, the Mystery made flesh.
\n“Jesus Christ … was Himself a victim of injustice and sin. Like you, He still
\nbears the wounds of His own unjust suffering. He understands the depths of your
\npain and its enduring effect upon your lives and your relationships, including
\nyour relationship with the Church.”<\/p>\n
\nplace to run off to in the face of the demand for justice: it is the only way
\nto bring justice about. The Pope calls upon Christ, and steers clear of a truly
\ndangerous shoal, that of distancing Christ from the Church, as if the Church
\nwere too full of filth to be able to bear Him. The Protestant temptation is
\nalways lurking. It would have been very easy to give in to, but at too high a
\nprice – that of losing Christ. Because, as the Pope recalls, “it is in the
\ncommunion of the Church that we encounter the person of Jesus Christ.” And so,
\naware of the difficulty both the victims and the guilty have “to forgive or be
\nreconciled with the Church,” he dares to pray that, by drawing near to Christ
\nand sharing in the life of the Church, they “will come to rediscover Christ’s
\ninfinite love for each one of you,” since He is the only one able to heal their
\nwounds and rebuild their lives.<\/p>\n
\nincapable of finding an answer for our sins and for the sins of others: agreeing
\nto take part in Easter, which we celebrate during these days, as the only way
\nto see the re-blossoming of hope.<\/p>\n