All Catholics have stake in meeting of U.S. bishops

We have had a gradual piecing together and some understanding of the complexity of sexual abuse; and the approaches taken in dealing with it have varied over the years. Early on, abuse was treated pastorally as a moral lapse, a sin; and the care included sorrow, confession, forgiveness and firm purpose of amendment. All of us know that our sins often return.

Then, with new insights, the abuser was also managed clinically by psychological treatment, and went to rehabilitation and returned. Now we know that some were not rehabilitated yet returned to ministry.

Finally, this all became a public issue requiring compliance with criminal law.

During this same time, care for the abused experienced a parallel process [of evolution].

Extremes have come to light: of some bishops overprotecting priests, to a wholesale jettisoning of priests to save the day. A great controversy arose about the privacy of the abused child and the abusive cleric, and what is the proper balance of tender and precious care, of justice and forgiveness, of hurts and healing.

So, here we are, invited to come to a prayerful preface to Dallas, a city which almost 40 years ago experienced a terrible suffering for our country. We are here with the bishop, worrying, wondering and waiting for decisions, statements, policies and plans that we know will never satisfy everyone.

Yet we look and pray for a first step. Have you ever seen a child take its first step or utter its first word: not a mile runner, not a learned linguist. The first "anything," with support, becomes a second and a third...and grows -- assisted and supported, corrected and challenged -- to maturity.

What is in your prayer, in your petitions to God, in your heart, amid sorrow and sadness and scandal? Do we dare to pray with the man up front in the temple: "I thank you, God, that I am not like the rest of people"? Or do we pray: "I confess to almighty God that I have sinned in thought, word and deed, for what I have done and failed to do"?

Do we realize that things will probably get worse before they get better, that old hurts will continue to surface, that more documents will be released, even that some will be unjustly accused and the media will pour more salt on the wounds?

We pray for our Bishop as he wonders how he might have acted differently in the past with the insights of today, though we pray with gratitude for his pastoral ministry and his integrity.

We listened tonight to 1 Peter 2:21-24. Peter writes of Jesus, one like us in all things but sin. Peter recalls his own cowardice, denial and early exit, and that Jesus carried our sins in His body to the Cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. Peter adds: "You were like sheep that had lost their way, but now you have been brought back here to follow the shepherd and keeper of your souls."

Shall we accept Jesus' humanity with us and our life with Him? We are the Church, a pilgrim people of God, saints and sinners, called to be wounded healers. There is no sinner without hope and no saint without a past.

What message will we send with our Bishop to Dallas? He doesn't go alone; we go with him to love and support him; to pray for him and with him; to beg the Holy Spirit of God to fall afresh on him, his brother bishops and upon us all to discern a new direction.

What is your prayer? That the bishops express profound sorrow, repentance and atonement; the people need to hear it...that we hear and see signs of authority that author life, and not power and control; we need collegiality and subsidiarity...that we can hear a statement of mission and purpose that begins to lead us away from turmoil and back to trust...that we will receive an invitation to be participants in a wider, healthier community, a diversity of ministry but a union of mission.

And how shall we receive our Bishop upon his return from Dallas? Are we willing to accept the Bishop's openness to new ways? It will cost you in time and talent. Are we willing to continue our prayers for the Bishop in his responsibility as teacher to preach the Gospel? Are we willing to take on whatever new issues surface, as indeed they shall?

Are we willing to practice what we preach...to be good listeners...to imitate Christ in caring for the injured, the neglected, the wrong-doer...and to undo the injustice that causes such sins against human dignity?

If we were shocked by the activities of the offending clerics, now is the time to affirm the ministry and service of our priests, and with them to be reconcilers.

If we have not known past decisions nor their reasons, now is the time to take on new responsibilities while having a deep respect for the privacy of each person, the protection of the innocent and the care for the victims, as well as a prayer for the forgiveness of sinners.

Shall we work for a holier Church to pass on to our children, to be credible as the people of God, to make visible and believable the reign of God, to join forces to bring about needed change?

Dallas must be a start, focused on one issue, but with many implications, with multiple challenges related to these painful concerns. Can we pray for a oneness of purpose, a oneness in sorrow and seeking, a oneness in justice and in compassion?

One step at a time, one outstretched hand at a time, one prayer at a time, may we bring life, not death, home from Dallas.

(Editor's note: The preceding are portions of a homily delivered by Father O'Brien, vicar general of the Albany Diocese and pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Church in Albany, at the evening prayer service, June 8, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany.)

(06-13-02) [[In-content Ad]]