Tough Week to be Catholic

It was a tough week to be a Roman Catholic. Still reeling from the fallout of the Church in Ireland's troubles and with growing reports of difficulties in the rest of Europe, the Catholic Church took a beating in the media in the last several weeks.

As a community, we should be held accountable for every child that has suffered this heinous crime under our watch, and decidedly more troubling and worthy of increased liability are further crimes that have occurred because of cover-ups and the knowing transfer of sexually misbehaving personnel. There is simply no defense for these actions, and we must do everything we can to be watchful and continue to reach out to those who have suffered so terribly.

My Ninth Grade World History Teacher had a healthy dose of skepticism about politics, large institutions, and more. One of his adages that stays with me is "facts never lie, but liars use facts." The recent coverage featured in the New York Times and spread to every media outlet about our Holy Father Pope Benedict may be a case in point. Outrageous headlines of 'cover-ups' the Pope's personal guilt and more have centered around only two cases: that of the Fr. Peter Hullermann from Essen, Germany, and that the Fr. Lawrence Murphy of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The acts of these two priests are abominable, this goes without question. But the effort to tie them both directly to the malfeasance of Pope Benedict in his former roles as Archbishop of Munich and Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith is strained at best. While the headlines make shocking and disingenuous claims, when one reads the actual facts you begin to surmise the journalistic reach. Missing from the headlines, of course, are the thousands of cases in which Pope Benedict has handled cases such as these swiftly, justly, and in some cases severely.

Syndicated Columnist Gwynne Dyer wrote a scathing op-ed piece published in the Salt Lake Tribune this morning. Again, for every child that has suffered under our watch we must assume responsibility. But this column seems to be a re-hash of material from ten years earlier, smacking of bandwagon journalism and riding the wave of disgust with the Catholic Church. Mr. Dyer accuses the Church of considering itself above the law. Did Mr. Dyer miss the June of 2002 United States Bishops Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People? In the last eight years the Catholic Church in this country has invested enormous resources and time in getting down to the business of fixing this problem, and recent independent audits indicate that there has been a great deal of success in healing, correcting and preventing any further abuse of children. Each Diocese has extensive guidelines, inservice training and background checks for employee and volunteers. A basic provision throughout this land is that these matters are to be immediately turned over to government authorities. I would invite Mr. Dyer to step off the wave, review the actual facts, and perhaps give credit where credit is due to an institution that has done a great deal of soul-searching, changed its procedures and now follows strict guidelines and policies.

As a Church, we are entering Holy Week tomorrow. We celebrate our most important days of the entire year on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday of this week. We go deeply into the mystery of Christ's suffering, death and resurrection, and we consider how these events are to shape our individual lives as followers of Christ and the very nature of the Church. The messages of humble service, standing with victims and the poor, real life found in the emptying of one's self for the other will come to us over the course of these days, inviting us to be more authentic servants of the Lord and his people. Let us pray that this Holy Week will challenge and inspire us to engage more deeply in advancing God's reign among us.

And finally, I wonder if any insight from last Sunday's Gospel lesson may apply here? At the public outcry against an adulterous woman, Jesus says to the outraged public that the first stone should be cast by the one without sin. Certainly food for thought.