Priests Told to Refocus on Holy Living OMalley Offers Strategy Amid Europe Scandal, by Lisa Wangsness, Boston Globe, March 31, 2010

Priests Told to Refocus on Holy Living
O'Malley Offers Strategy Amid Europe Scandal

By Lisa Wangsness
Boston Globe
March 31, 2010

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/03/31/priests_told_to_refocus_on_holy_living/

BOSTON (MA) -- Cardinal Sean O'Malley directly addressed the sex abuse scandal in Europe in his Holy Week homily to priests yesterday, telling local clergy that "the crisis that keeps coming back at us" underscores the need for priests to "live a life of holiness." He thanked the priests for their sacrifice and service but urged them to work on living more balanced and prayerful lives.

O'Malley spoke to hundreds of priests gathered at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in the South End in the midst of the most sacred week of the church year, and at a time when the worldwide church is confronting anew the crisis that first roiled the American church, beginning with the Boston Archdiocese, eight years ago.

“God is trying to get our attention,’’ Cardinal Sean O’Malley said to priests at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross yesterday.
Photo by George Martell

In Europe, Pope Benedict XVI has been under harsh attack for his own role in a case involving an abusive priest in the early 1980s, when he was an archbishop in Germany, as well as for his recent handling of the sex abuse scandal in the Irish church.

"These are not easy times to be a priest; sometimes it feels as if we're being walloped quite unfairly," O'Malley told the hundreds of priests gathered at the cathedral for the Chrism Mass, an annual rite at which priests renew their vows and receive vials of consecrated oil to be used in sacraments throughout the year.

"God is trying to get our attention," he said. "What is urgently needed in the church is holy priests, more than ever."

The cardinal gave the priests a three-pronged strategy to help them achieve greater holiness, a road map he said he would also outline in a letter to every priest in the diocese. Each priest, he said, should make an annual retreat "for silence, prayer, and spiritual direction, and a review of our life." All priests should also participate in regular activities with other priests to lend support and to hold one another accountable, he said.

And all priests should develop a more balanced life, O'Malley said, setting aside at least an hour a day for prayer and meditation, allowing time for sleep and exercise, eating properly, and getting regular medical checkups.

"Holiness is the most important part of our ministry," he said. "Let us help each other on that path. Our people are counting on us."

The Boston Archdiocese has undergone dramatic change since evidence first emerged that the church hierarchy was protecting abusive priests and hiding allegations of child sex abuse from laypeople and the authorities. O'Malley, a Franciscan friar who replaced the embattled Cardinal Bernard Law in 2003, was a key component of that transformation.

After enduring so many wrenching episodes in the years after the scandal broke, Boston priests now find themselves confronting a new flood of stories about similar crises breaking out in Europe, including allegations that three decades ago the pope himself — then known as Joseph Ratzinger, archbishop of Munich and Freising — allowed an abusive priest to be transferred to a new parish, where the priest abused more children.

The timing of the latest scandal has made it all the more difficult: Holy Week is the busiest time of the church year, as well as the most spiritually significant.

"It kind of opens up those old wounds that you thought were healed," said the Rev. Chip Hines, pastor of St. Mary's in Wrentham.

Hines said he was energized by the cardinal's homily, in particular his exhortation to priests to get together more often and support one another. Hines, who, at 42, was among the younger priests at the Mass, has tried to arrange gatherings with some of the men he attended seminary with, but demanding schedules and distances between churches have made it hard to do very often, he said.

Being essentially ordered by the cardinal to make such occasions a priority might help, he said. "I think all the guys would want to feel uplifted," Hines said, "and I think something like this would do that. Fraternity is always good."

The Rev. George Evans, pastor of St. Julia's in Weston, agreed. "I think priests in their own lives, and in their church, and in our confused world, really need the boost and support of one another," he said.

Scores of laypeople attended yesterday's Mass despite the torrential rainstorm to thank the priests and show support for their work.

"I really felt drawn to come," said Ann Richard, 72, of Danvers. "It hit me that the priests, they need so much love and support, and we don't give it to them all the time."

Debbie Vitulli, a 50-year-old nursing home chaplain from Methuen, criticized the news media for focusing on the controversy during Holy Week.

But she was pleased with O'Malley's words to the priests yesterday.

"I think he epitomized what they are probably feeling, a lot of them, and I think they were great words of encouragement," she said. "To be able to hear those words from their shepherd is a beautiful thing."