Reach out to Those Not in the Pews

By Sue Ontiveros
Chicago Sun-Times
November 17, 2014

http://www.suntimes.com/news/ontiveros/31129823-452/reach-out-to-those-not-in-the-pews.html#.VGxByfl_uSq

Agreat many Catholics thought the naming of Pope Francis meant a new day in our church.

Me? Well, much as I admire his devotion to helping the poor and his desire to be a force who brings people together, I know in reality he’s the guy in the far-away home office. Nice guy, good guy, but he’s quite removed from my Catholic reality.

Anyone who’s ever worked in a satellite office for a big company knows what I’m talking about. Sure, there can be a set of rules sent down from the home office. But how — and if — your manager in the outlying operation where you’re situated decides to follow them can be something entirely different, especially when they’ve been doing things their way for a very long time.

You know, like the guys who run the Catholic Church in the United States, the cardinals and bishops.

But once Pope Francis gets to move in his handpicked team of managers, well things might be a lot different, even so far away from the home office.

Well, now that day could be here for Chicago. Our new archbishop, Blase Cupich, is being installed Tuesday.

My prayer as he takes the reins is a very personal one: please God, let his actions show me I can return to church. I miss going to mass.

Oh, let me tell you, it took a lot for the Catholic Church to finally drive me away.

I hung in despite my utter disappointment with the handling of the priest sex abuse cases in the archdiocese. After all I discovered about the repeated missteps in the situation as I wrote column after column about it, I remained planted in a church pew almost weekly.

Mainly I stayed and put our weekly envelope in the basket because I didn’t want to hurt my own parish, a place I loved.

But then the archdiocese got so vocal in opposition to gay rights in Illinois. That was it for me. No one was saying the Catholic Church had to perform gay marriages. Why, when there were so many pressing issues for the archdiocese to address, did it have to choose to take up this one? I wouldn’t attend mass if I was not contributing, and no way was I going to fund such mean-spirited actions. So, I exiled myself, only returning for funerals.

But with a new leader, I do so hope for change.

From what I have read about Cupich, he sounds as if he’s open and interested in finding ways to make the church more welcoming to gays. That sounds promising.

And maybe he won’t agree that the recent release of the disappointing documents that purport to show what happened in individual priest sex abuse cases puts the situation to rest. It doesn’t. If anything, it looks like the archdiocese was trying to offer a sanitized version of all that occurred.

For one, we need to see the Daniel McCormack files; those cases happened in more modern times.

This albatross that continues to weigh on the archdiocese has to be addressed candidly and compassionately. I want to be optimistic that Cupich can do this.

I know the new archbishop will look out at a sea of people at his installation. I sure hope he’ll also think about who isn’t there and will want to do things to change that.

Email: sueontiveros.cst@gmail.com