Atonement for a scandal

by Editor · January 16, 2008

The proposal by Cardinal Claudio Hummes, prefect of the Congregation for Clergy, that the Church should seek spiritual renewal through atonement for the scandal involving sexual abuse by some Church personnel must be welcomed.

Cardinal Hummes suggests that this process of reparation should take the form of prayer before the exposed Blessed Sacrament. It is indeed commendable that Catholics should seek purification from the stains of scandal in the presence of Christ, who was betrayed by the actions and inactions of some who had promised to serve him and his people.

By calling for such a process of atonement, Cardinal Hummes affirms that the incidence of such abuse injured the whole body of Christ. It also manifests that there can be no tolerance of sexual abuse by Church personnel, a mindset that did not always find full expression.

Cardinal Hummes used forthright language in characterising his proposal: to make amends before God for the evil that has been done and hail once more the dignity of the victims.

His emphasis on the dignity of those who were abused is particularly pertinent. Too often, the survivors of clerical abuse did not benefit from solidarity within the Church, on all levels. Not infrequently, the pain of the abuse was compounded by fellow parishioners and even family members who would refuse to believe reports of molestation, and by some parishioners who sought to criticise, ostracise and even discredit those who said they were abused. Some abuse survivors say that such treatment hurt even more than the actual abuse.

The shame resides not only with offending priests and those in authority who failed, but touches the whole Body of Christ.

The incidents of abuse which, as Cardinal Hummes rightly points out, were committed by a tiny number of priests are distressing. The cost of the sins of a few has been tremendous, to those who were abused and to the Church as a whole.

The actions and inactions by many bishops and diocesan officials who sought to cover up scandal, or otherwise failed in protecting those vulnerable to abuse, have cost several US dioceses a combined astounding $2 billion (about R14 billion) in material reparation.

While the corporeal damage of these errors has been grim in places, the loss of trust in the Church, and the anger directed at it, by many throughout the world has been severely injurious.

Cardinal John Mahoney of Los Angeles experienced that fury first-hand when he was severely assaulted last October. To his credit, the cardinal bears no ill will towards his assailant, but used the incident as a salutary lesson in understanding the humiliation suffered by abuse survivors and their families, and that experienced by the Church as a result.

To emerge from the shadow cast by the scandal, the Church is in great need of the purification of which Cardinal Hummes speaks.

This initiative, however, cannot in itself represent a closure to this terrible saga. The Church will need to continue reaching out to and showing solidarity with the survivors of abuse, and find ways of persuading the public that it is committed to prevention and, when necessary, appropriate action.

The process of purification is a means by which the Church seeks to heal itself. This is entirely welcome, but it cannot replace the Church’s reconciliation with those who were damaged by predators in the Church and those whose response was lacking in charity and wisdom.