CHICAGO (IL)
Catholic San Francisco
September 26th, 2012
By Michelle Martin
CHICAGO – The Scripture readings at a Chicago Mass celebrated to mark the 10th anniversary of the U.S. bishops’ “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” offered the despair and isolation felt by an exile in the Book of Lamentations and the comfort of God’s mercy in the beatitudes.
Their juxtaposition shows the balance we all need, Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago said in his homily at a “Mass of Atonement and Hope” celebrated Sept. 15 at Holy Family Church, site of the archdiocese’s Healing Garden.
The garden, dedicated in June 2011, offers healing and reconciliation to all hurt by clergy sex abuse.
The concelebrants of the Mass were the cardinal and five priests who are involved with the Chicago archdiocese’s response to clerical sexual abuse. It included prayers for victims and their families, for those who assist them and for the forgiveness of perpetrators. It ended with a blessing of facilitators of the Virtus program, which trains church workers about the signs of sex abuse, how to recognize adults who are trying to take advantage of children and how to thwart opportunities for abuse.
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