The sins of the fathers

Anyone wounded by the ravages sown by those in league with the Evil One, can come to the source of all true love, peace and healing, Jesus himself, in the sacramental life he offers in his Church.

Bishop Scharfenberger

Scandal! If there’s one story most likely to succeed in garnering headlines (and, for the professionals, cash), it’s always the most scandalous one. That’s one reason so many are drawn to salacious rumor and gossip and — all the while gasping, oohing and aahing, as they proudly pass on their schadenfreude to the next nescient. Nothing, save perhaps the events of Jan. 6, 2021, had done more to signal the instability of our most hallowed institutions, than the Jan. 6, 2002, publication of the first of a series of reports in The Boston Globe: “Church allowed abuse by priest for years.” With that revelation — ironically on the Solemnity of the Epiphany — confidence in the Catholic Church as protector of all children was in one day shattered. 

Not that the news was surprising to any survivor. Not that the Catholic Church was actually the ground zero of sexual abuse of minors. It was not. Upwards of 85 percent of such abuse occurs within domestic circles, largely unreported, 77 percent by a parent (cf. NCA, National Children’s Alliance, 2022). And it is widespread, throughout all institutions, not only religious ones. No scandal, however, has so shaken the confidence of the Catholic faithful and many others than the cascades of reports on the sins of the fathers, unreported and accounted for over decades. All the elements of a scandal were suddenly being exposed: the hypocrisy, the deceit — and the (d)evil in it. I remember, as the scandal broke, hearing Father Benedict Groeschel say “and the stench of the Devil is all over it.”

Scandal, literally from the Greek, skandalon, means “obstacle” or “stumbling block.” St. Paul, in that sense, even speaks of Jesus Christ and his cross as a scandal, since it is so contrary to expectations concerning the Messiah that he would be rejected and lead some to miss the very life raft of their own salvation. In some ways, the “clergy scandal” may be doing just that: it’s repulsive ugliness has led so many to turn away in horror from the very source and summit of eternal life: the Eucharist and the sacramental life of the Church which celebrates it as the very core of its identity. 

It is not difficult to see the scheme of the Evil One here. Corrupt the clergy from within, the priests who are the fathers ordained to bring the sacramental life of the Church, the graces that flow from the side of Christ crucified, so that those most wounded by sins — whether theirs or those of others — are deprived of the very substance that would heal and bring peace to their souls: the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. It is something I can never tire of, to apologize from the depths of my heart to all who have been wounded by these sins of the fathers and to empathize with those survivors, and all who bear the hidden scourges and scars of abuse from so many others in their lives in whom they once trusted. Though you may not be able now to enter our worship space for long with any feeling of comfort or safety, our Hope & Healing resources are open for you (https://www.rcda.org/hope and healing).

An attack on the priesthood, whatever compromises or corrupts it, is an attack not only on the individual, or even the Church in which he is ordained, but on all those whom he is sent to serve and the path to salvation which they seek. It is scandal par excellence. A priest is in essence a man for others. He is ordained not to serve himself, his own needs, let alone his temptations. In the words of St. John Vianney, patron of parish priests, whose memorial we celebrated on Aug. 4, “the priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus. The priest is not a priest for himself; he does not give himself absolution; he does not administer the sacraments to himself. He is not for himself, he is for you.”

The wound that the Evil One seeks to inflict — the scandal — that he wishes to place between the people and the sacraments through discouragement over the sins and predations of some of our priests, the weeds he sows in the same field in which God plants the seeds of grace, is what I hope and pray will not lead us to despair, which is his goal. It is something Jesus warns us in one of his parables, that it is not always easy, even possible, to tell the difference between the wheat and the weeds. In every age there have been saints and sinners in the Church, and it is not always clear which are which. Some who might have in earlier stages appeared in one way may in the course of time grow to be quite different. That is why Jesus encourages patience and trust in God to separate the good from the bad in due time (cf. Mt. 13:24-30). The weeds, or darnels, are in fact a poisonous plant that in its first stages resembles wheat. Only in time can its insidious nature become manifest. When we grow weary or even come to our wits end as to why God seems to allow evil to prosper, we might consider whose example we wish to follow, the Evil One who sows bitterness and poisonous seeds, or the Son of Man, to whom Jesus compares the sower who sows the good seed of the Kingdom (Mt. 13:36-43). 

Anyone wounded by the ravages sown by those in league with the Evil One, can come to the source of all true love, peace and healing, Jesus himself, in the sacramental life he offers in his Church. All the sacraments involve some kind of gentle contact or touching that is healing and sanctifying. From the pure and cleansing waters of the Sacrament of Baptism to the palm that rests on the head of the penitent, accompanied by the assuring words “and I absolve you from yours sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The very last words of the Sacrament of Penance are “go in peace.” The Sacrament of Confirmation brings a special power upon the person to be infused with the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit. It also instills courage and fearlessness.

Incidentally, the validity of none of the sacraments depends upon the personal holiness of the priest himself. Each one is conferred ex opere operato, or by virtue of the words and signs themselves, properly celebrated. They do not lose their effect, even if the priest is no longer a priest in good standing, or even in the clerical state. Couples who are validly married in the Sacrament of Matrimony, in the presence of a priest or deacon, actually administered the sacrament to each other. They exchanged their vows while holding hands, a powerful sign that they are inviting the very essence of God. The Most Holy Trinity thereby becomes the center of their lives, and the bond that unites them together with God in opening their hearts and souls to the family God will make of them and through them by the most intimate and tender expressions of their love.

The Sacrament of Holy Orders in all three stages — diaconate, priesthood and episcopal ordination — is conferred by an imposition of hands. So also the Sacrament of the Sick, which also includes an anointing. This sacrament is offered not only to those in immediate danger of death, but who may be about to undergo surgery or whose physical or even emotional health is in a precarious state. No sacrament, however, is more personal, intimate and radiant than the Sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist where Jesus himself enters the soul of the recipient through the mouth in the humble forms of bread and wine, his real and sacramental presence. We become through this awesome mystery what we consume, the mystical Body of Christ, not mere individuals, but united in a community of life and love, entered through Baptism in Faith and sustained by the very One who gives us nothing less than himself — body, blood, soul and divinity. If we are looking for the kind of empowerment that affirms our dignity as a child of God — no matter what any sinful predator has done to us or what we may have done to ourselves to disfigure this — nothing makes it happen more decisively and effectively than a worthy reception of Holy Communion.

My heart is with all of you, especially anyone who may have suffered, or is still suffering from wounds afflicted by priests or anyone else who was given to you as a parent or caregiver in God’s name. I know this might sound corny to the world outside our Church, but my heart is truly with you as a father whose children are suffering, as an elder brother who is pained by what you must carry. I also know that God is with us. Jesus, God’s Son, is victorious over all the sins and failures we see before us, and his Spirit is with us until the end of days. Be not afraid.

 @AlbanyDiocese