Bishop Vincent Homily from 05 March, 2017

Catholic Outlook
March 5, 2017

http://catholicoutlook.org/bishop-vincent-homily-05-march-2017/

Dear brothers and sisters,

The Royal Commission has begun the so-called Catholic wrap-up. The three week final hearing focuses on not individual cases but the contributing factors and the deep causes of child sexual abuse and cover up in the Catholic Church in Australia over the last 60 years. All of the serving archbishops and several bishops including myself had to appear in front of the Commission and give our testimony in the witness box. It was not exactly like the Nuremberg trial. But in many ways, it was unprecedented.

It was a threshold moment and a transition point of profound significance for the Church in this country. Admission of systemic dysfunction, catastrophic failure and criminal negligence on the part of Church authorities of all levels gave credence to an institutional pathology. What is required for the Church to rid itself of this cancerous illness moving forward is not simply to treat the symptoms. We need to go to the root causes. We need to go back to the drawing board. We must have the courage to see how far we have strayed from the core values of the Gospel and to face up to the task of metanoia, that is, repenting of our sins and converting to the person and message of Christ, the humble suffering Servant.