Catholic Community of St. Francis Xavier Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time August 19, 2018 Homily on Victims of Clergy Abuse By Rev. Robert F. Leavitt Society of St. Sulpice St. Mary s Seminary & University First, let the words of Christ guide us. They set the right context for the homily I am about to give on clergy abuse and its victims. Jesus said: 1. If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea. (Matt 18:6) 2. Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. (Luke 12:2) 3. And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. (John 8:32) Remember these words when CBS reports about abuse. Now, let me mention three important facts about clergy abuse and its victims which I ll explain further on. 1. First, clergy abuse and cover-ups of it by dioceses were not faced honestly and openly by the church until 2002 when the Boston Globe reported on it and the U.S. Bishops authorized a national study that revealed the nature and scope of abuse from 1950 forward. 2. Second, the safeguards which that national study put in place to protect children after 2004 have worked to prevent further abuse. Very few cases of sexual abuse of children by church employees have happened since then. Even a few are too many. 3. Third, meanwhile, other abuse cases from the past will likely be uncovered by victims willing to tell what happened to them, stories which were not known or reported in 2004. The Attorney General of Pennsylvania s Report on clergy abuse in that state is based on the same data as the bishops had in 2004. These are not new cases of clergy abuse terrible as they are to hear. Let s be honest. Clergy abuse feels like a millstone hung around your necks many abusers are dead, but you bear the weight of it; news reports bring out a dirty secret in the church we wish would go away, but it won t; if abuse of children truly happened as it did, hearing about it doesn t make us so much free as make us angry. What do we do? THE FACT OF CLERGY ABUSE AND THE VICTIMS The other day, Archbishop William Lori encouraged his pastors to speak to their people this Sunday about the recent news reports concerning Cardinal McCarrick s alleged abuse of 1 Page
seminarians and the Attorney General of the State of Pennsylvania s Report that the hidden archives of Catholic dioceses in the State of Pennsylvania revealed that over 300 priests since the 1950s until early 2000 abused more than one thousand Pennsylvania children. Those archives even revealed that the then-bishop of Harrisburg, William H. Keeler, mishandled reports of clergy abuse in that diocese. Archbishop Lori also wrote in a public statement that abuse has been and continues to be a moral catastrophe for the church. Then in a homily at Emmitsburg a few days ago, the archbishop told the seminarians, this news has not been good, and it will not be good for some time to come. What did he mean by news not good for some time to come? Are there new revelations coming about the abuse of children? In this homily, I wish to offer you some facts about the clergy abuse crisis you may not know and to offer you practical spiritual guidance for coping with the normal feelings all of you must have hearing the news. Let me begin with Boston January 2002 and the John Jay Study of Sexual Abuse of Children by Catholic Priests and the Bishops National Review Board 2002-2004. The trigger event that woke up the Catholic Church to the extraordinarily serious character of this crime and to the shocking extent of abuse of children by priests happened in January 2002. That s when the Boston Globe journalists reported on the sexual abuse of children by priests in New England and the cover up of it by diocesan officials including Cardinal Bernard Law himself. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) immediately called for a thorough investigation of the nature and scope of clergy sexual abuse of children in the church. They empaneled a lay board of experts in law, psychology, human resources and government to determine the nature and scope of clergy sexual abuse nationally. Every diocese was asked to open their files to independent non-partisan investigators and 95% of the dioceses complied with that. All the raw data about abuse of children was coded to prevent the investigators themselves from being drawn into court proceedings, but the shameful and gruesome details of abuse were not concealed. The John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York was responsible for preparing the findings of clergy abuse for the National Review Board of the Church which included the distinguished Johns Hopkins psychiatrist, Dr. Paul McHugh. When the study was complete in 2004, and the scope of abuse was first appreciated, the numbers were staggering. They revealed that since 1950, 4,000 priests had sexually abused 15,000 children across all dioceses in the United States. It was no consolation to learn that almost all these cases had occurred between 1960 and 1990. Something had to be done about this. The National Review Board immediately established comprehensive policies and procedures for the protection of children by all church personnel to assure, as much as is humanly possible, that sexual abuse of children would never happen again in the Catholic Church. Background checks were universally required for all church workers. Since the new policies went into effect fourteen years ago, very few cases of abuse of children have occurred in the Catholic Church. Now, what about the Attorney General of the State of Pennsylvania s Report on clergy abuse in Catholic dioceses in that state that s in the news? 2 Page
The report of the Attorney General of the State of Pennsylvania about clergy abuse in Pennsylvania is based on the very same data that the National Review Board and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice discovered in 2004. What is most shocking about it this time is to see the names and graphic details of abuse spelled out. The secret archives the attorney general references are the same archives that were opened to John Jay in 2003. Victims of past abuse continue to come forward however. In 2002, the Archdiocese of Baltimore, on the advice of legal counsel, revealed the names of priests against whom credible claims of sexual abuse of children were known from its own archives. Names of priests, living and deceased, who had committed abuse or who had credible allegations of abuse against them appeared in the Baltimore Sun. That revelation cleared the air of secrecy surrounding this issue. Hiding the truth is a second offense. Why did Archbishop Lori speak of News not good for some time to come? What Catholics need to be prepared for in the weeks, months and, I dare say, years ahead is that every attorney general in every state in the country can now follow the example of the State of Pennsylvania and undertake its own independent grand jury inquiry into cases of abuse that occurred in dioceses in that state in years past and more recently. Even if such cases have already been detailed in the John Jay/National Review Board data, the facts will be a bitter reminder of what happened when no one was looking. The fact that many instances of abuse coming out will have already been reported in the 2003 John Jay Study does not make them less awful to hear. This is an undeserved penance for you and your family. Victims of past abuse will step out of the shadows to speak the truth of what happened to them. The reputation of the priesthood will suffer. The seminarians who have chosen to be priests will wear the mark of Cain for a sin they did not commit. (Gen. 4). The oldest symbol of evil is the symbol of defilement and stain. The Bible recognizes that sin can spread by a contagion from fathers to sons. A prophet says, The fathers have eaten wild grapes, and the sons teeth are set on edge. (Ezekiel 18:2) Clergy abuse is that kind of sin -- a transgenerational contagion on the reputation of the priesthood and the bishops. My prayer is that by asking forgiveness of God for it, even those who had no role in it will purify the church and make everyone the victims, Catholic faithful, and the public realize how shamed we are by this. A transgenerational stain means the institutional church cannot put this chapter of clergy abuse behind it. Many bishops, priests and laity naively expected that by establishing new policies of complete transparency and accountability that would happen. But, the State of Pennsylvania story shows otherwise. New reports on past abuse, past victims speaking out for the first time, will reopen the wound. The church must do penance as well as enact sound policy. More on that later. The bishops and priests and, in some cases deacons and lay persons, who might have committed abuse deserve to be treated as what they are -- criminals. Catholics must not feel sorry for the abusers or blame attorneys or journalists for damaging the church s good name. Blame the bishops and priests for that. Reserve your sorrow for the children and young teens whose lives were ruined, for altar servers taken to the beach who never returned the same. Catholics have every right to be even more indignant and angry over such acts than any public official or journalist can possibly be. Other figures who perpetrated sexual abuse, like coaches at Penn State or Olympic gymnastics trainers, do not lessen the church s guilt. This is our church after all, our 3 Page
religious family, our children who were abused, and our faith which has been besmirched by those we trusted. As old victims step forward or, God forbid, as new cases are uncovered, we will be shocked, angry and ashamed. Those are honest and appropriate feelings to have. What do I feel as a former Seminary Rector? I recently celebrated my fiftieth anniversary of ordination as a priest with you at St. Francis Xavier Parish. In my homily for the anniversary Mass I chose not to mention what I am talking about with you today. It was a day of joy for me and for all the good that God has done by grace in my ministry. But, today, I must speak to help you deal with this. As I have said, the largest number of cases of clergy abuse happened in the space of three decades from the 60s to the 80s. This was when the sexual revolution was sweeping the country. Its dark underbelly concealed perversions which are just now coming to light in the church. As a seminarian and young faculty member in the seminary, like you I had no idea this kind of abuse and perversion was happening. As rector of the seminary after 1980, the faculty and I dismissed seminarians whose behaviors made them unsuitable for priestly ministry. I personally dismissed a few faculty members who had compromised their roles. The psychological formation program filtered out the problems in many cases, but some inevitably got through. Once ordained and in the parish, these priests had virtually no supervision. Their bishops the Greek word for bishop is episcopos which mean overseer did not oversee the priest s behavior in ministry closely, and worse, no one in the church was overseeing the bishops themselves. Now, the state is doing it for us and it s painful to see. Institutions, as we all know, have no conscience. The state, corporations, the military, athletics, and the church are only as good as the people with consciences in them demand they be good. Moreover, institutions are self-protective and put their own survival and welfare first even sometimes above the values they claim to serve. The bishops who did not report sexual abuse crimes against children by priests did so to protect the church s reputation. They put that value above protecting the innocence of children from abusers. How could good men have done such a thing? Ask yourself that. SPIRITUAL RESPONSES Let me close this homily with three spiritual points that may help you cope with past and future stories of abuse in the church. Don t forget Jesus words about the evil of scandalizing children and its punishment; recall the words about secrets that refuse to remain hidden; remind yourself of his saying about the truth that alone will make us free. Three final points: 1. First, the model that the State of Pennsylvania used to shed light on clergy abuse from the past will be followed by other states in our country. Prepare yourself for that. That most of the abuse crimes occurred decades ago and that abusers may be deceased will not make these disclosures less awful for us. It is an undeserved penance for you who love the church and want it to survive this. Pray for the victims and continue to demand greater accountability and transparency from the church s bishops. 2. Second, when you enter church the first image you see is the figure of Christ stretched naked upon the cross. Don t let the liturgical familiarity of the cross fool you. Christ was a victim himself. Let his cross be a reminder of every victim of human sin and malice in 4 Page
society. The arms of Jesus are spread wide to embrace all the victims of depraved passion, pride, and power. Pray for and help the victims, protect the children, and see that justice is always done. Leave forgiveness in God s hands. 3. The unique character of the crime and the sin of sexual abuse of children demands, I believe, a unique liturgy of atonement. Not an Advent or Lenten penance service, but some other service at another time. The church should consider keeping a Day of Atonement (like the Jewish Yom Kippur) for clergy abuse of children once a year a day of Lamentation in the sanctuary without an edifying sermon, without tailored vestments, without formal processions, in darkness like Tenebrae, begging God s mercy and forgiveness for the sins against innocence perpetrated by priests and bishops. A day when all priests and bishops take upon themselves the sins of their brothers as Christ took our sins on himself. The Old Testament Prophet Joel uttered the following words twenty-five hundred years ago. No words I know express better than these ancient ones what the church must now ponder for herself and all of us in it. Put on sackcloth and lament you priests, wail you ministers of the altar... Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning, rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord your God for he is gracious and merciful... (Joel 1:13; 2:12-13) 5 Page