The Night When The Church Confessed Her Sins

By Patrick Beretta
HuffingtPost
January 18, 2016

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/patrick-beretta/the-night-when-the-church_b_8999464.html

Leaves fall early in Montana. On the first day of October, the trees, in front of St Patrick Church in Butte, seemed to welcome Bishop George Thomas with bare, ascetic arms. He was coming to our church to deliver a solemn message on the terribly dark subject of child abuse. On all of us gathered, the crisis had taken a heavy toll. None of us knew what to expect. As we waited, our souls felt as naked and cold as branches.

Just as humanity has always been on the move, from its origins the Church has also been in motion. Since the time of the apostles it became a pilgrim church on the Silk Road, Roman thoroughfares, Mediterranean sailings. But the primary journey of the Church has always been interior. Some of these pilgrimages within were transcendent, some were tragic. The recent child abuse scandal has been a pilgrimage of great shame and sorrow.

My only personal encounter with the horror of child abuse was not within the Church. Years ago, I had a restaurant employee who, one evening, did not come to work. After days of wild speculations and contradictory rumors, his daughter came to see me. Nothing in life had prepared me for the experience she recounted. Her father had been arrested because, as a child, she had been sexually abused by him. The staff and I knew them both very well and we literally felt physically sick for days afterwards. The dreadful abuse of one child had made victims of all of us.
Since the painful subject of clergy sexual child abuse came to the attention of the media, a false narrative has emerged. The scrutiny and the numerous investigations and reports have given the false impression that child abuse is essentially a catholic scourge. Whereas all surveys in the US and other countries have shown this crime to be widespread and not specific to particular religious affiliations. Indeed some evidence shows that the incidence in public institutions is higher. And, further, most abusers by far are family members and home is the most common setting

For a long time, the wildly inaccurate perception that the Church is primarily to blame for child sexual abuse tormented me. It is naturally excruciating to feel any guilt by association with a crime of this hideous nature. Many very good priests and bishops, some of whom I know personally, have been tarnished and even destroyed by insinuations, allegations, suspicions and false accusations. And most seriously of all, children continue to be abused when they find themselves in environments that are falsely deemed safe. But I have come to realize, through humiliation, that the Church has benefited from this kind of acute focus. It forced an end to the denial. Defensiveness which seems to be predictably effective in politics, invariably fails the Church. And, independently of the motives for this campaign of investigations, it led the Church back to the original Silk Road of repentance.

Statistical relativity is irrelevant to a Church that claims moral authority. The very fact that these monstrous betrayals happened at all, that some perpetrators were protected, that the safety of children was not always the absolute priority represent a systemic failure of monumental significance. The betrayals also made victims of all innocent Catholics. As long as the accused, imperatively, receive due process, the intense scrutiny should be welcomed. After all, people should have higher expectations and demand higher standards from an institution whose purpose of existence is to inspire and to extend God's Mercy. Missions for which I have always felt both inadequate and unworthy.

On that misty fall evening, the ceremony was austere but beautifully crafted. It opened with the silent eloquence of the penitent conscience. The Bishop laid face-down on the church's icy floor in a lengthy prostration. Then, while two young people were placing incense upon lit charcoals we sang: "Let our prayer rise before you O Lord like burning incense."

After a short time the Bishop spoke these unforgettable words: "...I have publicly pledged that in the Diocese of Helena, victim survivors will be respected, beloved and believed... In the name of the Church, I say, "I'm sorry, we are sorry, for all you have experienced because of the criminal behavior of those you trusted ... I want this time of prayer to be a way to raise up your voices, draw from your experience, validate your stories, and share your faith with the whole faith community as a precious gift from God...In the name of the Diocese of Helena, we thank victim survivors for the courage they have shown in stepping forward and assisting the Church to remove this deadly cancer. You have helped to shed light and truth on one of the darkest chapters in the Church's history..."

It was the night the Church confessed her sins. At the conclusion of the service there was silence and then I saw a lot of smiles. Bishop Thomas spent time in individual conversation with some victim survivors. It was an unmistakable moment of Grace along the pilgrimage of sorrows. Healing, at long last, had begun.